RP:The New Mad Scientist

~Part VI of the Arc:Chaos in the Nameless Desert

The scientist turns to see the giant centipede rear up and grab a hold of the shelving unit holding the potions and leaps away towards the back corner- though not before snatching the shards that had fallen from Cecil's pouch; adding them to his tight-fisted collection. The leap however, bowled him over and he hits the wall. The mad scientist’s muscles spasm, causing his previously shut hand to open rapidly- the chaos shards falling from his grasp. Sputtering, the scientist hits the floor and scrambles to his knees, reaching for the shards- but a moment too late. In his haste to reach the shards, the scientist crushes them under his absurdly light weight. Sight would say he was too thin to do any damage, but he obviously weighed enough to disrupt the shards. A flash of dark red light consumes the room- putting out all of the lamps that dotted the white-wash walls, and plunging the room and its occupants into darkness. Laughter is heard coming from the scientist; however, it is not normal laughter. The sound is shrill and rapid- like the pace of frequent hiccups- but it ranges in tone: at one moment high pitched and the next a deep rumbling. Another flash of light, this time a puss-colored green, and the room is lit again- unsubstantiated fires hovering in the air and casting an eerie glow over the already horrifying room. The laughter becomes louder, more frantic in sound as the scientist is again visible. Now, however, he is no longer the lithe, nutritionally deprived waif he was initially- his arms begin to shift and bulge, muscles growing rapidly, becoming disproportionate and then resizing to fit again. The change is immediate and enough to strain the elasticity of his skin; the bulging in his forearms, arms, wrists, thighs, chest, legs- every part of his body that is subject to muscle expansion begins to pulse, growing steadily larger until… The skin on the scientist’s ankles and wrists are the first to go- stretching to breaking point, the flesh tears to the sound of wet denim being ripped- a sickening sound to say the least. The rest of the skin begins to follow suit, as if unzipping. Racing up his arms and legs, the scientist’s body is flayed by its own muscles- too large to fit properly in the skin. Tearing back from his now muscled and pulsing chest, the skin reveals the organs that hang delicately in the man’s abdomen. Horror grips all those present as the carnage continues. Now, it is the bones’ turn- they begin to twist, bend and ultimately break- appearing to consume themselves and all of the organ tissue available to them. The scientist’s legs follow the same pattern, though rather than break, they become elongated as he chants “Centruroides oppugno”. Repeated constantly throughout the transformation, the words vacillate between guttural utterances and harsh screams. Spine bending, stretching out, twisting into inhuman shapes, the scientist is no longer human; bones grow out of the void where his organs were- six legs added to the original two- as well as another set of arms protrude from the once existent chest. Grotesque and putrid, the second set of arms turn into two enormous pincers, snapping and clicking- the sound echoing through the room. Dust and sand is picked up from outside the palace, being pulled into the miasma that is now the lab. The legs solidify, intensely muscled and large, twitching masses as they retouch with the floor. Raising up a quasi-human torso, the scientist stretches his new legs, almost curious. The action is only brief though- from the end of his body, large, pulsating tail rises- it seems the scientist was gifted with a potent and surely deadly stinger. Pincers snapping, legs clicking on the ground, the scientist – now turned half man, half scorpion- gives a shriek of triumph; blood staining the ground beneath and around his would be body; shreds of skin hanging limp off of the legs that picked over the ground.

Arcos couldn't believe what he was witnessing. Such a grotesque and yet fasinating transformation had never before been seen by the dark avian's eyes. Nothing even close. Under his mask his expression would be that of awe but such a detail would be hidden from view. Arcos was so distracted by this that he forgets where he is and what he was planning but only for a moment. The now man-scorpion hybrid's blood chilling shriek was a rude reminder of what was going on. He hadn't the time to wonder how this was possible or what it was. He could study it once it was dead, right now he had to come up with a new plan for the enemy had pulled an unexpected ace from his tricky little sleeve.

Cecilnezuto 's blade had spread it's blue aura around the group, countering any effects the Chaos Shard's power may have had upon the group. As the blue glow faded, Cecil rose and stared at the monstrousity before him. "So....it was -ye- that I've been seeking....good. How about we dance, eh?" Cecil'd tell the beast. The fumes seemed to have lessened their effect on him and though his lings burned, he seemed to be recovering. Also, by dance, he meant fight and by fight, he meant to crack this thing apart much like one would a lobster. As he sized up this new foe, he'd nod to his counterpart, who'd move closer to the group and stood far enough apart to grant them room to move as needed. As blades of blue and crimson flashed in unison, Cecil moved forward, only slightly and to the side, to allow Guyon room for firing his arrows. He was unsure what the bug would do, but he was sure it would be interesting. Unsure of the effects the many broken vials would cause, he waited for his opponent to make the first move. He needed to gauge this scorpion-man's strength and whatever possible ill effects the bug's frenzy upon the shelves would cause to himself and Guyon before he could make a decision as how to combat this new development.

Guyon takes several large steps back as Ym pulls down the shelves, some of the vials hitting the floor at his hooves- the liquid hissing as it rises and wafts into his nostrils. Snorting, the centaur’s eyes widen as the room is plunged into darkness and the scientist’s laughter rings in his ears. Slightly dizzy, Guyon shakes off the sensation, chalking it up to the sudden change in light and the fumes. Reaching his right arm across his chest, the Hunter grasps the hilt of his blade, drawing it quickly to protect from whatever the scientist was playing at. Guyon’s pupils attempt to adjust to the new light given off by the fires around the room, his sight swimming slightly-though briefly. The centaur mutters to himself “The horror,” as he witness the sickening transformation; brandishing the blade in front of his body, Guyon takes several steps forward, only to retreat as the monstrous pincers begin to snap open and closed- his last run in with those left his leg wounded- surely running into these pincers would take off a leg should he be foolish enough to get close. A moment passes and the centaur decides that close range combat ought to be left up to the other large bug, and replaces his weapon in its sheath. Redrawing his bow, Guyon notches a single arrow, breathing a fire enchantment; the tip of the arrow glows red for a moment and bursts into flames the next as the centaur releases the arrow, aiming for one of the scientist’s eyes.

Ymheshphilun thrummed as the vials landed where they were supposed to--oh look, things were darker. His eyes automatically adjusted to the new light levels, and then--well. That was unexpected. Giant scorpionman. Pretty tasty-looking, actually--all those bones cracking and skin and organs melting and moving around... yeah, it looked very yummy. Ym was getting hungry just watching it. But it was over there, across all those vials--oh my, did I do that?--and he seemed to be cut off. The centipede would have smiled to himself--now he could watch as whatever this new thing was destroyed his "allies" and then eat it himself. This was turning out to be a more fun battle than he'd thought.

The now transformed scientist roars slightly, the arrows speeding towards him. Lifting up what is left of his human arm, one arrow glances off of it, as if it were a grain of sand and it lands, albeit shallow, in his shoulder. Turning his head to the side, the scientist gazes down at the arrow and sniffs, as if simply annoyed by its presence rather than register any pain. Turning his face back towards Cecil and Guyon, he takes several quick steps and crosses the room, his legs making a loud tapping noise as each one comes into contact with the floor. Raising the stinger high in the air, the scientist lowers his human torso to enable the strike to go unhindered. The first strike is aimed directly at Cecil, and if landed properly, would pierce his hand all the way through. Rearing the stinger back (in spite of any success), he strikes again, this time aiming for the centaur- the stinger racing through the air and aimed directly at the top of Guyon’s back right leg. Again, retracting the stinger without proof of success, the scientist eyes the room and gives a cryptic nod, mumbling to himself. Fingers twitch and twist as the humanoid torso is raised again, allowing the scientist to survey the room. The scientist nearly shrieks “This isn’t over yet!” as his eyes glow a tainted crimson as his hands continue to weave through the air. Dust and sand start to pick up as a strange wind blows through the room, creating a kind of vortex, and it quickly reaches the speed of gale force winds; forcing all those around to either hold on, or be blown away. It appears that the walls crack and splinter under the force of the winds; however, such is not the case. Alas, it is the scorpion humanoid causing the damage- the crimson glow from his eyes seems to be cast outwards like a heavy mist. The light hovers over the scattered corpses on the ground as they slowly shrivel, apparently sapped of any and all energy that they possessed. Anyone in the room, or within a fifty foot radius for that matter, would be subject to their energy being siphoned into the humanoid. The process, however, is slow on living creatures, but unavoidable and unstoppable. The power of the chaos shards has been released.

Arcos first notices the fact that his engery was being sapped and rather quickly. This did not bode well with the dark avian, not at all. Being an undead had proven a disadvantage this time. As he exhales slow, one of his hands that currently gripped onto a dagger moves into the air, a mix of psionic power and arcane magic flowing through his aura as the wind and dust over his body. Deciding to use his own vortex against him, the illusionist causes a chameleon coat to cover his entire body making him appear as if he was the same consistency as the sand that blew in the wind around him. Arcos now was forced to move inside, pushing against the walls with his hands to sneak closer. If he could hold out long enough he would have the perfect opportunity to sneak-attack the mutated scientist, the dark avian only hoped that his presence here had still gone unnoticed by any currently here.

Cecilnezuto 's double moved into the path of the stinger, allowing the attack to hit him, piercing through the doppleganger's shield arm, the limb became transparant. It was clear(no pun intended) that arm was no longer going to be of use. As his double took the hit, Cecil moved in for a quick slash at the retracting stinger, unsure if his slash would hit, since after the beast moved, it created that gale, which blew him off course. Fanning his wings out, Cecil braced himself against the winds, as the sands swirled viciously around the group. He could spot his double doing likewise and as the stinger raced toward Guyon, his twin would move to slash at it once more, the crimson flash near invisible among that ominous glow of the same color. Cecil vaguely noticed his friend was having a hard time seeing and wondered why for a moment, then understanding hit him. The centaur wasn't adapted for seeing in the dark as well as Cecil was. That would prove a problem.... Mumbling words to an enchantment, Cecil found that he kept losing his grasp of his mana. It was that foul miasma that surrounded them, it was slowly sapping his strength, but his minor spells would be useless, they'd be absorbed before he could ever cast them. If he used heavier one's, they'd drain him too fast and they couldn't have that. As the winds died, he folded his wings and motioned for his double to retreat and he took it's place, moving near the centaur, hoping his blade's glow would cast enough light for Guyon to see properly

Guyon takes several quick steps back as he sees the stinger aim for Cecil- though as it strikes the doppelganger, the centaur breathes a small sigh of relief. Though the calm was brief as the stinger was lifted and sent in his direction! Attempting to escape the trajectory – also with the aid of Cecil’s doppelganger- the stinger only glances over Guyon’s hide, though the contact and the venom would prove to be enough in due time. Shaking off the slight, Guyon notches another arrow and pulls it back on the string, attempting to breathe in some kind of magical strength only to find that he is unable. Frustrated, the centaur drops his bow on the ground and hyper-extends his arms, his fingers flexing accompanied by a loud popping sound. The same claws that had impaled a berserker now extended again as Guyon took several quick steps towards the humanoid scientist, physical strength seemed to work, though slightly diminished. Pulling his right arm back, Guyon aims to strike directly into the scientist’s stomach, hopefully, driving the claws into a soft spot between the exoskeleton plates. His left hand, though clawed, reaches down for his sword and draws it quickly, hoping to impale the scorpion. Drawing his left arm back and striking forward, Guyon’s aim is the would be belly of the beast- evisceration his goal.

Ymheshphilun was pretty much checking out the back of the room, away from the battle and potions and whatnot. Ym was after some zombies or something maybe, or maybe some sort of artifact that would increase his strength, or maybe just some blackmail material. He wasn't finding anything yet. Then a wave of weakness hit him--it seemed to be coming from that giant thing over there. Darn, it was still attacking him. As the pull on his energy continued, Ym tried something to counter it--he knew it wouldn't help much, but it could slow things down--he attempted to pull energy from the air via deep breathing. Not in the way the scorpion was--no, Ym's exoskeleton turned air into pure chemical energy for him to use. It was a neat trick. But it seemed the energy was being pulled out of the air as well--the Scolopendra Primamplio wasn't succeeding here. And an attack would mean going closer to that fog of potions that looked dangerous. Blech, no thanks. Perhaps just conserving energy would be best--sitting and resting and absorbing power. That... actually sounded nice. Ym curled up in a corner and allowed his eyes to dull, becoming unfocused. He went into a state of meditation, just trying to draw energy from the area.