RP:A Prediction and a Battle

~Part IV of Arc:Chaos in the Nameless Desert

Cecilnezuto would feel the gash in his arm close as the healing spell hit him. Mustering what strength he could, he stood and looked around. "That was a rather interesting way to spend the eve..." He'd mumble, before trudging to the lake and kneeling to drink from a clean portion of the water, until he saw the bodies. Sighing, he instead sat back and pulled something from his pack and drank it.

Guyon chuckles openly, his energy slowly returning to him. The centaur turns bodily to face the once more evlen woman. "I would b' wary of yeh, but you prov'd teh be an ally in battle. I-" Guyon pauses, turning his torso to glance at Cecil who has just collapsed on the sand after attempting a drink from the oasis "We, 're grateful fer your help. You are welcome teh journ'y with us and are ob'viously guaranteed safety amongst our group." Guyon allows himself to collapse onto the sand, his tail half-heartedly swishing through the sand. "I b'lieve it is more prudent teh rest now, than to f'llow our attackers." His last sentence was directed to no one in particular, as the centaur inhales and exhales deeply.

Ymheshphilun probably would have continued to follow them even if they had said no. Being the egotistical and businesslike being that he was, he wasted no time on formalities. Turning off the illusion again, once more revealing his form, he shot straight for the water and plunged in with a big splash, immediately sinking below the surface, scrubbing and thrashing. The water bubbled and roiled for a long time--Ym really needed a wash.

Cecilnezuto sat back and was splashed as the bug decided to hop into the oasis' depths. He looked over wearily, recovered, but still feeling the effects of that battle. "Now....that is something ye don't see everyday..," He'd mutter softly

Guyon shakes his head, eyes turned to the giant bug bathing in oasis. Gazing back at Cecil he mutters "Tha' was- nawt " Guyon pauses, shaking his head. "They 'ad teh 'ave come from somewhere."

Ymheshphilun 's thrashing and scrubbing subsided for a time. His oxygen supply was a lot lower under the water, so naturally he'd begin to slow down. He glided easily out of the water, beaching himself, the liquid glistening in the moonlight. His eyes dimmed, becoming unfocused.

Cecilnezuto nodded as he investigated the tracks the attackers left behind, "Aye...it appears as if they came from the south, but that place is supposed to be abandoned.... Why, then, would they come all the way here and to the plains of ash? Makes no sense." He'd say as he rose and walked beside the tracks, trying to judge more from them

Guyon pulls his lips together hard. "I 'ave traveled down 'ere before, though nawt so far south as teh learn wha' or wha' doesn't live down there." Gazing upwards, the centaur reaches into the pocket of a satchel hanging off of his side. Pulling out some bones from the pocket, the centaur shakes them in his hand before dropping them on the ground. Gazing at the bones' formation, the centaur eyes them warily. "We cann't move tanight. 'Tis bad news."

Ymheshphilun 's head was near enough for him to catch that bit. One eye lazily came into focus and the crow from earlier dropped like a stone and landed heavily nearby. "And why not?" it hissed.

Cecilnezuto nodded his understanding at Guyon's words, sitting down heavily by the tracks, still investigating them as he spoke, "Aye, I have been further south, before...... There was no signs of life in that deserted place and it was strangely void of sound, other than the echo of yer own steps upon the dusty stones."

Guyon turns his head towards the giant centipede "I say we don't go bec'use the bones 'nd stars are bad tonight. It's nawt w'rth the risk." Turning his eyes towards the stars again, Guyon continues "I spend meh days 'ere, and 'ave recently felt somethin' strange comin fram the palace down ther'."

Ymheshphilun made a dismissive grinding noise in the back of his throat. The crow shook it's head. "Stars and bones? Superstitious fool. They're points of light in the sky and parts of dead things. They're not 'bad' or 'good'." The crow stopped talking but judging from the emotions radiating from Ym he was continuing to monologue to himself as he pushed himself up and moved over to the corpses, gracefully moving across the sand.

Cecilnezuto would just sit and ponder matters, "In any case, none of us are currently in the shape to go there tonight. If that was but a fraction of their numbers outside those halls, then there must be hordes inside the accursed place."

Guyon frowns at the centipede's dismissal of his beliefs. "Cecil is right. We cann't leave t'night." Turning to the paladin once more Guyon inquires "How 're yeh healing? Whate'er is out there, we can't be anythan less than perfic. Whate'er is there, we 'ave to face it full f'rce."

Ymheshphilun picked up a pair of the bodies and inserted his antennae into them. Moment's later their eyes opened, a stark black color. He set them down, then moved onto the next pair. This would likely go on for a while. He could always download instructions later, but the reanimation was the biggest part of it and so he wanted to save his energy. The problem was that he was off at a far enough distance to likely be unable to hear anything they said to him.

Cecilnezuto said to you, "I'll be fine, due to my mixed bloods, I heal rather fast. I'm more interested in the why and how for both these attackers and that." He points to Ym with his index as he said that last bit"

Guyon smiles slightly, and turns to observe the bug. "I feel l'ke I should be worried 'bout him." Shaking his head he looks up at the sky. "P'rhaps it's best we rest fer th' night."

Ymheshphilun just continued making zombies. They were being converted rather rapidly--pretty soon he'd be leading what was left of the army. Their comments about him went unheard and unnoticed.

Cecilnezuto watched the zombification the bug did and stood slowly. "Perhaps we shouldn't linger here....something tells me this is going to be a long night." As he paused, he brought out some vials from his pack, he had only a few more left after these, "Here, potions I carry, they tend to restore strength rather rapidly." He'd hand one to Guyon and toss one near the bug

IN THE LAB OF THE MAD CHAOS SCIENTIST

/- The laboratory is most definitely horrifying; strewn over the ground are the littered and rotting corpses of all kinds of creatures. Horses, humans, elves, drow, centaurs and even dragon bodies lie void of existence on the hard floor; however, even more disturbing are the number of scorpion skeletons that are amassed in a corner of the room. Some look as though they’ve been dissected, while others appear as though someone has attempted to graft pieces of the exoskeletons together. The acrid stench of decay would be enough to stop nearly anyone from getting closer, but what is most disturbing and in fact down right horrifying, is the sight that awaits the travelers in the middle of the room. A large steel table lies occupied in the center of the room; a human torso rests there, eviscerated and flayed open to reveal the inner organs, bone and muscle structure. Adjacent to the human body is the body of yet another scorpion, though this one has been morphed and tooled into something much more gruesome: it is large and preternaturally muscled… and twitching. Not the ‘recently dead’ twitching, but something much more lively, as if the body itself were fighting for the life force that was surely slowly escaping from it. Hovering only inches above the scorpion skeleton is a gaunt, sandy-haired man; his body is waif-like, withered by the sun and sands. Glancing up fervidly, he eyes the intruders and curses at them. The mad scientist’s eyes wander over to a pile of flesh somewhere off center to the room; pointing, he shouts a command at the carnage and out springs a rather decent sized centipede, one a great deal similar to Ym, curiously so. The strange centipede takes off down the length of the room, its antennae directed entirely towards the other; perhaps it is a kind of recognition, though it is doubtful as the centipede opens its maw to spit out a liquid not unlike venom at Ym. Whirling awkwardly, the scientist screams a command at several warriors uncannily similar to the berserkers the travelers encountered at the oasis; though these were more animated and seemed able to communicate with each other. Giving the travelers little time to talk or even act, the berserker warriors descend with savage brutality and ear-piercing shrieks.

Cecilnezuto upon seeing the attackers he swiftly downed the potion he'd saved for such an occurance, so as to be at full strength. As he tossed the vial at a berserker's face, his blade was already tracing an arc towards the nearest one, as it swung, he'd begin the chant for a spell, he knew they were gonna need it

Guyon takes several steps backward, aghast at the sight that lay before him. It was not merely the crippled and withered human- but the horrid experiments, both failed and quasi-successful that horrified the centaur. Almost a mimicry of Cecil’s actions, Guyon grabs the vial that the Knight had given to him, tosses it to the back of his throat and lets it fall from his grasp. Opting to leave his bow till he was at better range, the Hunter draws his blade from its sheath; the sickly green hue of the metal is amplified by the fire lamps that dot the room’s walls. A yell, and the centaur arcs the blade directly towards one of the oncoming attackers, only to meet metal with metal as the berserker parries his attack.

Ymheshphilun was leading his horde of zombies into battle, glanced idly over the carnage, mostly thinking ~oh look, more zombie matter~ when the other centipede rushed him. The zombies would be unlikely to be able to fight it, so he thrummed an infrasonic command at them to join the fray against the other berserkers. They wouldn't be very imaginative in combat but they'd function properly--Ym had revised his basic swordsman's battle tactics several times, and they had a good knowledge base. But their real strength lay in their resiliency--they could get mortally wounded and still fight on. In the meantime, Ym had a thing to deal with. It was spraying venom at him. Seeing the remarkable resemblance between himself and it, he didn't find it likely that the venom could hurt him and retaliated with plowing straight for the beast, aiming his claws for chinks in it's armor, trying to stab deeply into it.

/- The warriors close the range on Guyon and Cecil at an alarming speed- the ferocity of their attack evident in their strangely lively eyes. They seem to be alive, though functioning on a primal level. The berserker closest to Cecil is sliced across though stomach, though not entirely cut in half. The attacker looks down at his stomach, though briefly and continues the onslaught- in spite of blood and chunks of what might possibly be organs, falling on to the floor. Two more trace their way around the Knight; one launching himself off of the ground, aiming to jump on Cecil’s back- a dagger ready to drag across his throat should the leap succeed. The second dives in from the side, dropping to the floor and sliding in on the side of its leg, small throwing knives propped up between his fingers, each aimed at vital, though small parts, of Cecil’s body. Guyon’s attack, having been parried is countered, as the attacker releases the sword from his grip, opting to drop to the ground, balancing on his toes and fingers, the berserker is strangely lithe, his body weight balancing perfectly on the fingertips and toes. Scrambling underneath the centaur, or at least attempting to, the attacker aims to cling onto Guyon’s stomach and bite through his hide in an attempt to eviscerate him! The scientist roars in anxiety as Ym barrels into his precious creation; similar though they may be, it seems this new giant bug is not quite as sturdy as Ym. Crumbling under the force and clearly confused by the lack of effect produced by its venom, the centipede snarls at Ym, it’s antennae twitching and feeling outwards; rearing up to the maximum height it can reach indoors, the centipede throws its weight downward in an attempt to crush Ym.

Trinsa enters the desert with a self, satisfied smile. "Finally got the hang of this thing..." she mumbles to herself while looking around. "Desert, yup. - What's this?" Entering into the nearby building, the elf ventures forward through the door, "Hello?" Where she expected crickets to churp, if that's what happened in the desert, she heard quite the commotion. Trinsa was in no way ready for any sort of battle. After a full day of fighting, er, defending from a oversized anthropod with her broken arm, this was not what the elf wanted to hear. Trinsa considered turning back now but her feet refused to cooperate and thus carried her through the doorway while her eyes peeked around to find out just what was going on. Now that her arm was set, in a sling, and bandaged with support, her instincts told her to hide behind the nearest piece of furniture and stay put.

Cecilnezuto had watched the slice cut into the berserker with little effect and noted the one throwing blades at him. He would raise his shield up to block the weapons as they were thrown, they glanced harmlessly off the upraised shield, but that gave the attacker behind him time to latch on and slice with the dagger. Reacting swiftly, Cecil would flip the attacker on his back and stab his sword into it's skull, but he had been flayed by the close call, the dagger having traced across his face and down his shield arm as the berserker was tossed. Cursing and bleeding, he drew his sword out of the berserker's skull and launched his spell at the one with the knives, hoping to blast it's face with a fireball. He then saw Guyon was in a likewise predicament and launched his second, stored fireball at Guyon's attackers, not knowing which it would hit. Cecil merely hoped it'd buy his friend some time to react to the attack

Guyon rears upwards, his front two hooves kicking out in anger as his attacker seemed to give up- though the sensation lasted only moments. Dropping back to the ground, the centaur manages to stomp on the back left leg of his attacker, though the pain was not enough to stop him. Feeling nails digging into his side, Guyon bends his human torso towards the ground so that his head peers between his legs. Reaching his hands outward, the centaur flexes his fingers- a loud popping noise is heard following the actions. Wincing, Guyon straightens out his fingers as large, sand colored claws extend from underneath his fingernails. Opening his arms wide and then closing them in quickly, Guyon skewers his attacker and tries to tear him away from his stomach. The berserker snarls and reaches a hand down to try and swat away the claws speeding towards him; the reach though places him in the path of Cecil’s fireball. The berserker is practically roasted by the fire, as he is unable to move. Comically, it looks like something you would see if you were to walk in on a spit roast.

Trinsa peeks up from a chest that she crawled behind as the chaos ensues. Glimpses mostly as off the cuff spells are flying faster then wild fire. Oh my! Is that- by golly it is a fire right there - Duck!! So Trinsa keeps her place, now and through out the battle. A peek or two now and then but there is no way she is coming out so long as there are weapons sharpening their edges on bodies!

Ymheshphilun watched as the other bug began to rear up to try to match Ym's own height--and then watched in further amazement as it lifted itself further, going as high as the ceiling would allow. He calculated that it's landing on him would be disastrous--thus he took the best possible path. He shifted quickly to the side, lurched forward, and then slammed a claw into the beast's hide. Hopefully his foe would fall sideways, unstable, and maybe crash into a bunch of berserkers as well.

- Cecil’s original attackers had been vanquished easily by the Knight’s spells, but it seemed to only further agitate the other berserkers as well as the scientist. Cackling as he retreats back towards a corner of the room, he raises his hands to eye-level, twitching them in an odd rhythm as he mumbles to himself. The pile of carnage that lay in the corner begins to jerk and groan, as if the scientist had imbued some long dormant life into the mound of flesh. Horrifyingly slow, out crawls a large scorpion; its legs skittering over the flesh and bodies it had just emerged from. Pincers extended, the scorpion by-passes the battling centipedes and heads straight for Guyon and Cecil. Snapping them open and shut, the scorpion extends and retracts those monstrous pincers as he closes the distance even faster now. The stinger itself is bulbous, pulsing a sickening purple and green hue- venom clearly coursing through it. The scorpion stops momentarily, its eyes taking in the form of the centaur and the half-elf draconian; without a sound of warning, the scorpion charges them both, the width of its grasp enough to encompass the travelers. Raising the stinger high into the air, the aim is for the dead center of Cecil’s skull. The right pincer busies itself with trying to chop through the centaur’s legs. As the scorpion bypasses the battling centipedes, the newly formed giant insect- still reeling from Ym's claw bowling into its side, is sent flying into the wall, incapacitating a number of the berserkers- enough at least, to allow Guyon and Cecil some time to deal with the rather large scorpion that was advancing on them. The centipede seems to groan inwardly as it rights itself again; sticking low to the ground, wary of revealing its underbelly, takes off towards Ym- antennae twitching vigorously; the tips of which seem to glow a blue-ish color.

Cecilnezuto seeing the scientist rush to the corner of the room, Cecil narrowed his eyes. He saw the giant scorpion rise and begin it's charge swiftly. Still bleeding and cursing, he'd chant another spell and summoned a doppleganger of himself that, though was like him in everyway, it was slightly weaker, since it wasn't the real thing. As his doppleganger ctood in the beast's path, Cecil would drink another potion....he was running low on them, but he needed to be at full strength for this battle. As his wounds healed, he'd charge right next to his double and make an upward slash, hoping to lob off that dangerous limb that came for his head. As he did this, his double charged into the beasts side and began hacking swiftly, though his double's blade wax far different from his own. It was a Blade of Midnight, and was fairly strong in it's own right as his twin slashed at the beast, the two Cecils would attempt to distract the beast long enough to allow Guyon a clear shot.

Guyon snarls as the scorpion emerges from the pile of flesh in the corner, barely registering the scientist himself. Swinging his blade quickly, Guyon barely has time to note the pincer coming towards him, and thus jumps but a moment too late. As his hooves leave the ground, one is caught in the scorpion’s grasp: nearly crushing the centaur’s back left ankle bone. Tumbling to the ground, Guyon curses at the beast for a brief second. Horror creeps into his face as the centaur notes the deadly scorpions stinger. Not wasting a moment, Guyon takes several limping steps back, replacing his blade in its sheath: it was going to take more than a sword to take this thing out. Reaching behind him, the Hunter takes his steel crossbow in hand, while the other reaches for two heavy steel arrows. Notching the first one, Guyon aims it directly at the stinger that was aiming for Cecil's head. Loosing the arrow, Guyon focuses more on his second attack than the hoped for success of his first. Notching the arrow, Guyon takes a moment to aim for the absolute center of the scorpion’s pincer; drawing back hard, the centaur puts his hopes in the strength of the arrow and his own arm. Should it succeed, the pincer would be pierced all the way through, rendering the appendage useless.

Ymheshphilun turned to face the foe once more, snarling at it. As it rushed him, this time low to the ground, he decided to go for one of it's weak spots, which he knew from experience with his own body. As they charged each other, Ym reared up just slightly, getting his mouth to right on the level of it's eyes. His mandibles opened, and a tentacle-like tongue with a nasty mosquito-like needle on the end shot out, aiming for the eye. As it launched, it sprayed an acid-like substance that might dissolve his foe's eyes, effectively blinding it and opening a path for his antennae.

-The scorpion shrieks as Cecil and his doppleganger slice and dice into its body. Large though it may be, it seems the scorpion was not made to withstand the onslaught of three different attackers; in fact, it seems the scorpion was only intended as a distraction. Far into the dark corner, something eerie is glowing- presumably where the scientist was hiding. As Cecil and his copy manage to cut into the body of the scorpion, the arrows that Guyon had sent reach their marks. The first punctures the bulb at the end of the scorpion's stinger, and the liquid gushes out onto the floor: it's damaging effects only come into play if the venom is directly inserted into the victim- contact with skin would be mildly irritating at the most. the second arrow strikes the pincer in the center, cracking the exoskeleton and sending the scorpion into a pain-induced rage. Collapsing onto the ground, the only foe left (besides the Scientist) was the second centipede who met his doom at Ym's open mandibles. Clearly, this other centipede would be a valuable find and powerful zombie follower of Ym's.

Cecilnezuto paused, as did his double, both watching that eerie glow. Checking his pouch, he saw that he had three vials left and hastily tossed one to Guyon and the bug. He was intending to save the last one for himself, since he was still fresh for the moment. Blade glowing blue and his twin's glowing crimson, they both stood and watched, waiting and ready

Guyon drops his arms to his side, chest heaving from the rush and fury of the battle; however brief it may have been. Looking up towards Cecil, he catches sight of another vial coming towards him: he was going to need it. Looking down at his leg, the centaur sneers, and bends his torso downwards, placing his hands over his back left leg, muttering a healing spell. Sighing deeply, Guyon raises his torso upward again only to face…

Cliff hanger!! go to part V!