(Collab post)
Kassandra pulls her Nemean Claws out from the skull of a soldier and glares at the Centurion. "Move! Or be moved!" She barks. The being stands still. Kassandra huffs. "Be moved it is then." She holds her claws back horizontally before she charges directly at the Centurion yelling at the top of her lungs. Typical Spartan fashion. She swings her claws when in strike range, intending to hit him full in the head with her momentum from the run and swing
Lavaetain looked at the centurion as she snapped her fingers. Immediately her weapon, Lavaetain, flared into being in her hands. She looked at the being with disdain. She was used to fighting mages with power that looked like it was far beyond what this being possessed. But, then again, a mage had an entirely different look. Oh well. No matter. She quickly raised her blade upwards as she channeled the flame to cause the ground to start to well up and erupt upwards... Right as Kassandra charged in.
"Kassandra! Watch out!" she cried out in warning. It was too late to stop the spell now and the centurion would almost certainly dodge in response, but if it meant there wasn't a spartan barbeque it was worth it.
The centurion didn't move as Kassandra ran up to it. Once she made her swing, it ducked its head under her arm, switched his blade around so it was along its forearm, and slashed at her abdomen quickly. It's speed was fast, reacting within seconds of the attacks. Before Lava's spell could hit, the centurion put its hand to the ground, and a black field of energy blocked the eruption. The ground around the field blew up in flames, but the centurion and Kassandra were fine.
Lava would feel its power was magic. Or something unnatural. Looking at it would give her a headache, as it was pure black. Like staring into a dark cave. This thing may not be organic, but whatever power it wielded was not manufactured. It was... just dark. The centurion quickly spun around, flipping its blade upwards again, and tried slashing Kassandra again across her back.
Kassandra grunts taking the slash at her abdomen. Her armor takes the worst of the cut at least. Her claws swipe air and her feet hit the ground hard. Anticipating an attack from behind, Kassandra lets go of her claws to get out the Spear of Leonidas and duck the slash meant for her back. One hand reaches out to grab the Centurion by the weapon arm while the other thrusts up with the Spear at his neck.
Lavaetain grunted in annoyance. So long as Kassandra remained in close she couldn't use most of her offensive spells for fear of friendly fire. She quickly ran through her list of viable spells that wouldn't also risk accidentally hitting Kassandra and came up lacking. Everything she knew either expected her opponent to be a mage or would require a precision she couldn't muster as long as looking directly at the being. She had heard of such darkness before, in the legends about demons and the like, but actual encounters with the fel were so rare that it was more hypotheticals than factual. Still there was one thing she could do. She raised her blade upwards and conjured up flame until it took form in a replica of herself, and then she repeated, and repeated, slowly trying to encircle the centurion with her flaming doubles which, when commanded, would surge forwards in a hopefully-undodgable attack that would break through but could be held back for at least a little bit at the same time.
She grabs it, and successfully stabbed the centurion in the neck, but only sparks came off. Its skin was pure metal. With its other arm, the Centurion grabbed Kassandra's arm, and threw her right at where Lava was standing without any effort, pushing her through Lava's replicas. It then summoned a spear of its own out of the pure black energy it commanded, and slammed it down to the ground, causing a dark explosion that snuffed out the rest of the replicas.
Before the smoke even cleared, it then flew the spear at Lava and Kassandra. When it landed, it let out a huge, yet somehow black explosion.
"LOOK OUT!" Alec shouted, pushing Abby out of the way again of the spear, as it was aimed directly at the rest of the group as well. The shockwave would knock the two forwards, with dust and dirt covering them bot.
As the mechs went down and men fell by a bolt of lightning Reegan hid behind the box as the twittering in her head started to deafen. Too many dead all at once made her mind throb with pain. as she pulled herself back to firing position over the crate leveled her bow at the centurion. A finger twitch released a whip-CRACK of glowing purple arrow charged with void energy breaking the sound barrier. The path went wild as the black energy washed over her and arrow both. Eyes turning a pale red she collapsed to the ground before the color started to recover and she bent up.
Lavaetain grunted in pain as Kassandra was thrown hard into her and, a second later, a spear made of black energy. Instantly Lavaetain's barriers flared up. Her first primary barrier snapped into being and shattered as her secondary rose up, shattering at it dissipated enough of the darkness. The force of the explosion threw her back as well causing her pain as she crashed to the ground, but she was alive. Two barriers down! She had never had that happen before from a single attack. It was almost unheard of short of very specific spells designed to shatter shields and extremely powerful spells that were used as last ditch efforts. Her third barrier, her clothes, was thankfully undepleted but it would take a bit for her barriers to regenerate. At least half a minute if not more.
"Careful. I have no clue what magic that is, but it's not normal. That should have only broken one barrier at most." she said as she coughed and tried to get back up to her feet.
It takes Kassandra a few seconds of groaning and shaking of her head to get herself oriented.
"He tossed me. Never been tossed like that before." She rises to her feet and is together enough to understand Lavaetain. Although she does hold the arm the Centurion had thrown her by. A miracle it wasn't dislocated, but it still hurts and a large bruise forms on her forearm.
"No, it's not a man. My Spear struck metal between the armor. " Her eyes narrow.
"We have to hit it with something bigger to distract it to get on the ship."
"Sonofabitch what the hell is that thing?" Abby coughs getting up from the floor.
"Nice save Alec. Now we gotta re-arm and get on that ship." Abby wipes her eyes clear and looks around. Yeah most weapons around look to be fried.
But there are still a lot of crates.
"If we're lucky, these got some goodies." Abby army crawls to a stack of large yellow crates on the ground nearby and opens one.
"Jackpot!" She pulls out a pod weapon from the crate like the ones used by the guards of this facility. They open with just a touch.
"Now how the hell do you change the settings?" Abby checks her gun. Near the trigger is a dial and a tiny screen that changes as it's turned. Default setting is 'Automatic'. Others as it's turned clockwise are Replay, Arrow, Net, Flame, Rocket, Ice.
"Ohhh rocket!" Abby's eyes go wide when she finds that setting.
"If you lost your piece come on over! These crates got what you need!" Abby calls over to the others. Each of the five crates has a dozen of these weapons, fully loaded with reloads stored in the bottom.
"Now, let's see how he likes this." Abby stalks around the stacks until she gets a clear shot of the Centurion, aims, and launches a rocket at him.
Reegan grabbed the edge of the box as the Ghost behind her dim red eyes helped her injured body turn back the darkness to return in their deep orange. While she didn't turn to Nomad to see how he took the fell black nova, she knew she had to focus on the Centurion. Instincts swiveled her ear to the spartan more than the excited Abby. The voice of command drew her subservience As one supposed to serve a Dragonborn when the prophecy came to be.
The Ghost had quick attention as she called for the rifle, "Ghost, the rifle."
The Final Embrace erupted from transmat in a fury of silver threads. A blue large-bore sniper rifle with gold trim drove its stabilizer feet through the box as vanes in the rifle body started to smolder in misty glimmers of light. Said curtly for Nomad's benefit, she explained, "I am strong enough to nurture three projectiles only. Choose well."
Reegan knew she wasn't strong enough to be a distraction on her own but was strong enough to arrange one. A true name of un-creature Layyel wasn't known to her if it had one of its own at all, but very few fail to hear when a reaper uses its voice to call out their chosen name. A bellow of something only somewhat a sound in the ear as a name strangely almost one's own tongue but failed to make sense the ear of those who did not bear the person it carried. She called him to her by entreating the creature to wreak death in the darkness it was born from.
"He's a Robot?" clarified Lavaetain, regretting immediately that she was incapable of lightning magic. However she had fire and there was plenty she could do with that. Especially with an oh-so-convenient rocket streaking out from Abby's direction. An oh so convenient rocket that would provide a natural source of flame regardless of what happen. An oh so convenient flame that could be shaped and focused.
As the rocket streaked forwards Lava didn't really care if it hit the centurion or not. Instead she quickly amplified it's speed with her own fire magic and then focused on the blast that would, doubtless, ensue to focus and shape all that energy. Energy that would be normally lost expanding outwards in useless directions now being focused forwards and towards the centurion. Even if she only controlled the combustible aspect of that...
But more importantly she was buying time to stay away from the centurion until her shields replenished. She didn't want to have to go beyond her limits in order to keep them charged, especially since the first limit would be irrelevant in keeping her shields charged meaning it would go right to the second; her own body.
The centurion did dodge, dashing to the right in the blink of an eye, but with Lava's spell on Abby's missile, the explosion's intensity still engulfed it. When the smoke passed, the centurion was still standing, although more visibly damaged now. It's armor was more dented, and pieces of its black skin had chipped off, including half of its mouth. Something was leaking out of the cracks though, a black fog that billowed out like smoke from a damaged machine.
It looked right at Abby, and although it couldn't emote any facial, it felt like he was pissed at her. With another fast dash, it smashed into another one of the crates scattered around; sending it tumbling at the group like it was rolling down a hill. It also slashed its sword three times across, sending out beams of energy to the left, right and center of the group, so if they tried rushing to the left or right, or kept to the center the beams would head right for where they would try to dodge.
Layyel ran.
Behind him, streaks of blood and viscera painted the walls, remnants of the slavers and their constructs brought low and dashed upon the stones and broken ruins of the tunnel, yet it gave him no relief. The light of the exit was so, so far away and no matter how fast he ran or how panicked his pace, the light seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer, as if being swallowed by the dark.
Behind him, the screams grew louder and the shadows grew heavier.
Layyel ran faster, still holding a faint hope that he could escape until it was extinguished as the light gave way to the blackness of the tunnel.
Layyel stumbled and fell face-first onto the ground, all hope was lost to him now. Rolling over, Layyel tried to find anything at all, an exit, a torch, a friend, anything that could save him. Instead, he beheld the shadows of the cave, and soon the shadows came to life, brandishing theirs flensing blades as they smothered him. Soon the pain came as they cut away at his flesh and sinew, sewing on extra bits and breaking off the parts that they didn't need. They laughed as they did so, intermingling with the screams that fell silent until the only voice left was his. He drowned in the pain, the long-forgotten despair of the past pummeling and smothering him until eventually, it stopped.
Distantly, he could hear the faint melodic sound of a woman's voice, getting closer and closer. As it approached, the pain in Layyel's body left him and the shadows were banished as the music resounded from around him, blanketing him in comfort. Shakingly, Layyel stood amongst the music and heard a voice. As it spoke, Layyel felt comfortable and light as gentle hands embraced him in silent comfort.
Soon, his helm, the cage once nailed and welded onto him, was lifted from his head and Layyel looked down upon himself. His armor had been cleaned it seemed, and what little flesh that was uncovered by his plate was healthy and tan. Smiling to himself, Layyel closed his eyes and breathed out a sigh of relief. He felt relaxed as memories of a village surrounded by verdant green and old companions flooded through him as he reminisced and basked in the music.
Opening his eyes, Laurel beheld a light surrounding friends both new and old. Laurel stepped forward, Micheal and Hild, his oldest friends, taking his hands as Leopold stood behind them, billhook at the ready to protect him from harm. The rest of them smiled and helped his best friends pull him into the light.
Laurel smiled as well, welcoming the comfort and embracing the music as he closed his eyes and allowed them to pull him close.
Reegan's call would come back empty. Layyel wouldn't hear it. His thoughts were completely drowned in the new reality he was in. When he came wandering out of the tunnel, back to where they were fighting the Centurion, he was just not there at all. He wouldn't hear commands, or anything shouting at him. He would simply walk past them, and the Centurion strangely ignored him; letting the giant pass.
Laurel would simply see the Centurion as one of the knights guarding the town, standing aside as he welcomed him home. Everyone was welcoming him back like the war hero he was, with a party being held in the town square. As Laurel walked down the streets, Layyel was going towards the ship, walking up its ramp.