trans_9 | The Accursed Island [Closed]

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The Accursed Island [Closed]

Planet Designation: Forcellia Status: Terrestrial, H-class. Non-sentient life: Extensive flora and fauna. Semi-Sentient Life: Yes. Sentient Life: Homo Sapiens. Water: 69.5% of the planet's surface. Climate: Earth-like Landscape: Varied. Air: Normoxic concentration. Air Pressure: 101.3 kPa (kilopascals) = 14.7 psi (pounds per square inch) Sky: Blue, with variable cloud cover. Sun: A class G2V, yellow star. Warnings: Wildlife and plant-life can be hazardous. Humans can be hazardous. Mission: Negotiate for or otherwise obtain the artifact known as the Scepter of Domination.

Forcellia, or at least the part of it that contained the clearing in which the group now found themselves, wasn't exactly welcoming. The ground was little more than rocky soil, the sky violet-grey and overcast. Here, it was evidently late afternoon, edging into evening. It was slightly humid, as if from a recent rain; faint clouds of steamy mist seemed to curl off the ground, partially obscuring their view of their surroundings. Scraggly trees rose up out of this mist here and there, as if grasping towards fresher air.

The villagers in the area had supposedly been contacted ahead of time, and this had been the place they’d agreed to meet the crew. Whether or not they knew anything about this supposed Scepter of Domination, however, was not yet clear. What the Scepter even did or how it might contribute to their struggle was even less clear.

In the distance, they might hear the occasional whinny of a horse, or the lowing of a cow carrying up to them from the distance, though it was difficult, if not impossible, to tell from which direction the sound was coming from.

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The ground began to shake, the rumbling almost imperceptible at first, then increasing in volume until it seemed to come from both nowhere and everywhere at once. Even as the quaking worsened, the air grew heavy and still. Then, out of the dense cloud cover, it came – the massive, reptilian head first, followed by a serpentine neck and an immense armored body. A red dragon, its burnished scales glinting in the low light of day. Four great, ragged wings kept it aloft as it soared through the sky toward the group assembled below.

As it approached, the crew suddenly heard a shout – a human shout. Someone was running toward them through the mist: a man, clad in the gear of a watchman. Probably one of the villagers. But before any could react, a bright, white-hot swath of flame shot out from the dragon’s open jaws, finding its mark in an instant. The man only had an instant to scream; he was reduced to cinders even as he ran to reach them.

Oh. Oops. Well, at least they'd sent someone out to meet the crew.
[keep it to one thread, please! No set posting order, and remember, you’ll get another crack at the dragon later on!]

The shaking ground was jarring enough, but the appearance of the dragon brought back some rather unpleasant memories of an old man and his pet...

And then whoever that was got reduced to nothing. ...well, that was terribly unsettling to say the least. Shoutarou shudders visibly, then pulls out a Driver, putting it on his waist out of reflex, pulling out a purple object. "Philip! ... Philip?"

Crap, the Double Driver's range doesn't reach back to Stacy.

Dragons?! Here?! Ronnae didn't know whether to be overjoyed, or angered. She had always had an immense respect for the dragons of her world, maybe a bit more favorable than most ever since she was a kid and snuck out into the stables where the family kept most of the dragons that had joined their group.

This one however didn't seem like it was about to let her tame it, and as such, she unsheathed and readied her two large weapons and poised herself for an attack, moving to the front to help and try to keep the others from suffering harm.

Oh, crap. At first, Ellyn's usual bravado asserted itself--almost.

Until it registered that it was a dragon that was bearing down on them.

At least it's a fire-breather? her mind gibbered at her. She couldn't run, that wouldn't exactly work. Maybe she could act like a firebreak?

She ran up, despite the fact that she was trembling, and stood a good five to ten feet away from the half-orc.

"Hey, fangface! Yer momma was a salamander!" Great words to put on your tombstone, Ellyn.

With the sentry taken care of, the beast turned its attention to the crew, wheeling around in the sky to better target them. From its place in the sky, it roared -- an inhuman sound that ended in an earsplitting keen.

Now that it was within firing range, they could get some idea of just how large the creature was: 200 meters from snout to tail, with a wingspan just as wide. Its jaws were easily large enough to gobble them up in one bite. Like popcorn.

Screaming popcorn.

Soren hated dragons, though admittedly he was used to them being much, much smaller. He didn't know how much it would help, but he lifted a stave high above his head. White light suffused the area as he cast his barrier spell; hopefully it would give the others some protection so they wouldn't. You know. Die instantly.

"Beast!" he shouted, though he wasn't even certain the dragon could hear him. "If you think to stop us, you are mistaken!"

A quick swap of Drivers, and an insertion of a blue Memory grants Shoutarou his projectile form. He'll pop off several shots from the Trigger Magnum, but given the distance, if the shots even hit, they probably won't do much given the size of the beastie...

Nothing too different yet, Ronnae stared down the dragon, unfazed by the size or it's aggressiveness. It almost felt as if she was back in one of the many draconic lairs, facing down the dragons that wanted to destroy or enslave Azeroth.

She let out a loud bellow, as if trying to match the dragon's, yet hers of course, wasn't as intimidating or groundshaking, but it did do something else, to her team. They could find themselves invigorated with a newfound resilience and stamina, making them heartier and stronger than they were before.

With that out of the way, the young, half orc girl stamped her feet and got into a battle stance, readying her action as she focused for a counter attack. She preferred to capitalize on those to deal a more effective and massive blow.

Caro wastes only a second in surprise before her training kicks in. She is toward the back of things, which is for the best if she's going to protect everyone from that dragon. And the best chance of that is Fried.

"Dragon Mount Summon!" she cries, the pink gems on her gloves glowing bright as a huge spell circle forms around her and her little white dragon. A moment later, a roar sounds from inside the glowing circle, its source yet hidden within the giant sphere of power. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOHpcH6rhV0)

Her Death Spinner was going to be absolutely useless here but that didn't leave Alendian without options. Holstering the big weapon on her back, she plucked a Haywire Grenade off her belt. Large biological creatures would be paralyzed for a short time by the weapon but she needed to wait for the right time to use it.

She hardly moved though, instead, she prepared herself to teleport wherever was required.

The dragon swept to the ground, rearing back on its haunches. If it was disturbed by the slightly unusual nature of these particular two-legged creatures, it made no sign; even the sudden roar from Caro's direction gave it only brief pause.

It lunged forward to snap at Alendian first, planning to use its jaws to crush her within her armor.

In many ways, Sofia was used to scenes like this. Despite wearing the armor forged in honor of great Zenithian Dragon, her journey across her land had caused her to fight against the more dangerous ones of the same kind. She didn't even bother wasting time to cast the smaller spells to test out the foe's might, as it lounged at one of her colleges. Kazapple bright out the full lightning fury of the gods, righting from her fingertips.

There was another spell in her arsenal that could be useful, but she didn't dare use it quite yet.

~~Just can't take five steps without a random encounter, can you?~~

A dragon, huh? Wakka'd seen these things before. And Wakka knew exactly what you were supposed to do with dragons.

Throw sports equipment at them from far away and catch it on the rebound.

Wakka focused on his ball and gave it a little boost. His ball was shrouded in a purple mist - dark attack. It had a chance to blind the beast. A chance. Might as well see if the easy stuff worked before pulling out the higher ups.

And then he lobbed it at the dragon.

That could be dangerous. As confident as Alendian was in Eldar armor construction, she definitely wasn't in the mood to test her heavy armor against the teeth of a dragon with herself as the winning prize. On the other hand, she wasn't confident at all in the sorceries and....absolutely idiotic attacks her partners had, sorry Wakka. ~~Guns that shoot shurikens are infinitely superior.~~

She did the next best thing. Teleport out of the way and onto the dragon's back. From there, she raised the grenade in the air and plunged the sharped point of it into the dragon's skin, hoping for it to penetrate.

Where has Punchy been during all this? Oh, he just forgot to calibrate his night-vision goggles to their daytime setting and ended up temporarily blinding himself. Which means he's spent the last thirty seconds stumbling around trying not to get stepped on or knocked over, and possibly would have been turned to roast if not for Ronnae and Soren's magic.

Awesome. Perfect way to start a superheroic battle. His good mood is ruined.

Finally able to see again - although those spots floating across his vision might as well be disco balls - he tries to figure out what to do. Most of his comrades are using ranged attacks, but Punchy's never been good with that (as if evidenced by the fact that his name is not, in fact, Projectiley). So he runs around the dragon's flank and charges from the opposite direction of Wakka and Sofia's attacks, seeking to punch the dragon in the ankle.

Sofia's spell hit the dragon full on, casting a cascade of electrical sparks down the creature's neck. For some reason, however, most of the spell seemed to run along its side briefly before rebounding back into the air, as though the dragon's scales were repelling it.

Alendian, on the other hand, was so small and light that while the beast noticed her disappear, it wasn't even aware of the sudden added weight on its back. In fact, the pointed tip of the grenade hit the thick armored scales of its back squarely and... bounced off. Oops. Maybe she could tie it to one of the long ridges that ran along its back or something.

As that moron stumbling around blindly finally started to run around to the dragon's side, it whipped its tail around to meet him. Ha! You think a thousand knights haven't tried that already, Punchy? That's totally what tails are for. Also, this tail was tipped with a massive club of barbs, easily two or three times as long as a grown human, so, um. Hopefully you are not impaled and dead now.

Wakka's ball flew boldly through the air, spinning toward the dragon's snout. It hit, the impact punctuated with a faint poof noise, then bounced off.

There was a brief pause.

Then the dragon shrieked in what could only be true fury. You threw sporting equipment at it, Wakka. And it was so mad.

It drew back its head and opened its jaws, sending an immense plume of flame in the direction of Wakka and those near him. Soren's spell would protect them from most of the damage if the flames hit, but then its power would be spent and they'd be defenseless for another round.

For Ellyn, it was pretty damn hard to do anything. She didn't want to admit to being paralyzed with fear, but. Well.

The only dragon on her world was a Monarch. Bigger than this dragon for sure. And you didn't go off and attack a Monarch if you liked living.

Which Ellyn did, all bravado aside.

The fire, though? That, at least, she was pretty sure she could do something about.

She hoped. Dragon fire wasn't exactly the same as natural fire, but she could control magically called fire just fine. Ellyn figured it was worth a shot. Even if it might hurt. If not, hey, it was just going to energize her!

It took little more than a few seconds, but the effect would be similar to lightning to a lightning rod. The pyromancer called the dragon's fire to herself. If her gamble worked, it'd ground it all to her, and Soren might have his spell left.

Ellyn hoped.

Ronnae had been stuck between assisting and attacking, on one hand, she was already plenty skilled at fighting dragons and knew this was a chance at delivering a well placed blow, but right now there was a teammate in harms way that wasn't in the shield or way of the firestorm. With but a split second to react, the young, half orc girl charged at not the dragon, but at Punchy, tackling him to the ground in hopes that they both avoided the massive barbed tail.

Finally Freid's transformation is complete, and when the spell circle breaks Caro is riding a huge white dragon which roars once again. They bank low, flying over their shipmates and toward the attacking dragon.

"Everyone get back!" Caro shouts as Fried opens his mouth wide. Her pink gems glow again as magic builds between his open jaws.

"Freid, Blast Flare!" And then a massive fireball shoots toward the attacking dragon.

Alend snarled in frustration, her anger overcoming the mask on her personality. Ripping the sword off her belt, it activated with Alend's psychic energy and the blades began to whir. If the grenade wasn't going to fit, she'd just have to carve a hole for it.

Though that wasn't what the other members had in mind. Hooking the grenade on a scale, she teleported off the creature and into safety to get away from the incoming fireball. Of course, the grenade went off, blasting the creature with electric energy meant to disrupt circuitry in mechanical vehicles and nervous systems in biological creatures.

Punchy doesn't end up dead, thanks to Ronnae's quick thinking. He does end up getting the wind knocked out of him, but big whoop, that's small potatoes.

"I had him, Red, I was about to waste his-" he argues as he pushes up off the ground, but then he sees the dragon open its mouth. Going off instinct, he puts himself between Ronnae and the flames, punching forward and using Puppet's force field to protect them both.

His hair and jacket and are a wee bit on fire when the flames subside. He pats them out and looks at Ronnae. "So. We square?"

Ronnae looks from the dragon, to Punchy and smiles, giving him a reassured nod. "We square." She figured that meant even!

With that, and thanks to her new chance at another shot, Ronnae rushed up the tail and past it's back, looking for the general soft spots of most dragons... Mainly, the soft sinew at the joints of their wings, looking to not only ground the beast, but damage it both physically and mentally.

So somehow before the dragon got a chance to throw a giant bout of flame at Wakka's face, Wakka's blitzball rebounded back in the air at him, and Wakka jumped up to grab it.

The dragon didn't look blinded. But there were about ten-thousand other things happening around him, so who knew was was going on with that thing. And also there was rather a lot of fire coming right at Wakka.

At this moment, Wakka wished Yuna were there.

Okay, screw you guys. Soren wasn't planning to let a dragon burn him to a crisp. What he was going to do was make a break for that ballista he'd found earlier. The heat from the dragon's last blast had warped and blistered the wood, and the metal joints and trigger were still red-hot. Donning thick work gloves that he'd kept hidden in his robes, he shoved at the contraption, attempting to turn it in the direction of the giant reptile.

...attempting being the operative word.

Because Soren had a build of like 5 or something in Path of Radiance. He probably weighed more than Caro, but. Not by very much.

Sakura was equally petite and liable to not look like she could benchpress a Chihuahua, but she had on gloves (which would be next to worthless) and the ability to think fast on her feet.

Seeing what Soren was attempting to do gave her a better focus than "tie exploding tags to kunai hope for best," given the lack of easy surroundings to use against the giant fire-breathing animal. Sakura manipulated her chakra and threw her considerable shoulder into helping Soren move the ballista, ignoring whatever heat she had the benefit of enjoying in favor of getting it pointed in the right direction.

"Tell me when it's right," was about the extent of her gritted-out conversation. Making this move was deceptively easy, if the contraption itself was entirely new (to her).

THE ATTACK

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