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CARNIVOROUS - The Sentinel - Feb 15 2021
Takes place around when the Ursa Assault begins.
He had come here under Master Vargas's direction. 'Prove yourself, then,' he had instructed him, a challenge that had sent him back on his way. The precise instructions had been to seek out the cave where the beast Emuh lay in wait, and to undergo--and succeed at--the trial there.
The Sentinel had his halberd in hand, the shadows shrouding him pooling at his feet and curling up the weapon; but Emuh's little cave was dim enough that he did not immediately find vision problematic.
"The Sentinel," he rasped, calling out hollowly, "seeks Trial."
RE: CARNIVOROUS - Game Master Bunny - Feb 15 2021
"OOO-HOO, A TRIAL? WHY ELSE WOULD YOU BE HERE." Emuh said, suddenly there in midnight garb. Eyes—glimmering sharply against his face—appraised the hound. They blinked, and widened. Whorls of darkness seeped from the owl-beast's feathers, and he crowed eagerly, "NEW MAGIC TURNED TO OLD AND CONSUMED AND REMADE AGAIN!"
There was an audible smile as the looming figure whisked off, "GET ON WITH IT, THEN."
His figure faded into the dimness of the Place of Ascension, like he were a dying star exploding into a black hole. It churned and writhed in the void, reshaping to suit the test's needs.
—
When the unnatural darkness faded, the room had been transformed into a facsimile of Gemini—if the alien hound had ever seen it.
He was planted squarely in the middle of a hall of mirrors. There was room enough to take five steps to either side, and walk forward a few feet before he smacked into a mirror. Warped reflections followed him on all sides, squashed and stretched Sentinels copying his every move; though, sometimes... it seemed like one would move on its own, or shift out of sight.
... or was that a trick of the light?
The mirrors were an Oily-black. Iridescence swarmed their greasy, warped surfaces. Rattling, uneven breaths echoed throughout the hall, and there was the occasional shuffling of feet.
After a time, the footsteps grew more frequent and drew... closer.
There was an audible smile as the looming figure whisked off, "GET ON WITH IT, THEN."
His figure faded into the dimness of the Place of Ascension, like he were a dying star exploding into a black hole. It churned and writhed in the void, reshaping to suit the test's needs.
When the unnatural darkness faded, the room had been transformed into a facsimile of Gemini—if the alien hound had ever seen it.
He was planted squarely in the middle of a hall of mirrors. There was room enough to take five steps to either side, and walk forward a few feet before he smacked into a mirror. Warped reflections followed him on all sides, squashed and stretched Sentinels copying his every move; though, sometimes... it seemed like one would move on its own, or shift out of sight.
... or was that a trick of the light?
The mirrors were an Oily-black. Iridescence swarmed their greasy, warped surfaces. Rattling, uneven breaths echoed throughout the hall, and there was the occasional shuffling of feet.
After a time, the footsteps grew more frequent and drew... closer.
@The Sentinel
RE: CARNIVOROUS - The Sentinel - Feb 15 2021
So this--this was the trial, then?
The Sentinel barely had time to register Emuh's presence before the owl was departing, again. The mirror-like crystals that sprang up around him had him spinning, this way then that, in silent alarm--but no attack yet came.
Instead, the room had shifted, changed, and now his own reflections turned with him. He waited a beat, listened, then stepped forward--and out of the corner of his eye, he'd have sworn that one of his reflections stepped too far, as if out of the crystal entirely.
His breath held, a spike of alarm roaring through him. Slowly, he stepped back, but before he could eye the crystal over, the distant shuffle of feet jerked his attention forward again.
Nothing came. Not yet, anyway.
"Come," he demanded suddenly, and slowly lifted his halberd before him, tilted slightly forward. His legs tensed down, his form alertly tense. "Fight."
After a beat he lashed the halberd out--a few quick strikes in each direction, smashing for the nearest crystals. Could he shatter them, or were they hard? Thin sheets, or solid stone? Would there be a crash, or a thud of metal on rock? He did not know, but he wanted more space in which to maneuver, without this hall of mirrors pressing in just a few feet to either side.
RE: CARNIVOROUS - Game Master Bunny - Feb 16 2021
The verbal demands went unanswered, but the shattering of crystal as the Talon wailed through it? Well—
Greasy shards fell across the floor with every quick, fierce, precise strike; with them, an increasingly foreboding cold and the rising sound of heavy, thumping footsteps. The halberd stabbed through the last mirror in the Sentinel's immediate vicinity, met its own (normal?) reflection, and gave off an echoing shriek of metal-on-metal.
Moments before the mirror broke, the Sentinel's reflection had churned and shifted; a black-hooded, stocky figure was staring back at him. It took a single step forward, shoving harshly with the haft of its halberd to unbalance him.
Cyan eyes—just two of them—glinted beneath the hood as it then raised the mirrored Talon over its head. The axe side swung down in a smooth arc, primed to strike a scaled shoulder.
Greasy shards fell across the floor with every quick, fierce, precise strike; with them, an increasingly foreboding cold and the rising sound of heavy, thumping footsteps. The halberd stabbed through the last mirror in the Sentinel's immediate vicinity, met its own (normal?) reflection, and gave off an echoing shriek of metal-on-metal.
Moments before the mirror broke, the Sentinel's reflection had churned and shifted; a black-hooded, stocky figure was staring back at him. It took a single step forward, shoving harshly with the haft of its halberd to unbalance him.
Cyan eyes—just two of them—glinted beneath the hood as it then raised the mirrored Talon over its head. The axe side swung down in a smooth arc, primed to strike a scaled shoulder.
@The Sentinel
RE: CARNIVOROUS - The Sentinel - Feb 16 2021
The sudden assault came unexpected.
This figure--this one was not his reflection. This one was an enemy--a true enemy, the source of shuffling footsteps and foreboding cold.
Instinct driving him, the Sentinel lashed his own halberd up to meet the strike: a sharply-raised haft brought up crossways in a split-second effort to deflect the blow, and then a strong forward kick with one foot. If he could knock this foe back, buy himself an instant of breathing room...
...and then use that room to push...
He did not speak further, unaware of who this figure was, though something--something--about it gnawed at him.
RE: CARNIVOROUS - Game Master Bunny - Feb 16 2021
Metal shrieked against metal once again, a relentless symphony for this potentially lethal dance.
The Sentinel's foot connected with his strange foe's stomach. It stumbled backward with a voiceless huff, driving the base of its halberd into the ground in an attempt to steady itself—and to put itself on the defensive.
Those graceless few moments were enough to afford the hound a chance to attack before it fully recovered and prepared to swing again.
1/3
The Sentinel's foot connected with his strange foe's stomach. It stumbled backward with a voiceless huff, driving the base of its halberd into the ground in an attempt to steady itself—and to put itself on the defensive.
Those graceless few moments were enough to afford the hound a chance to attack before it fully recovered and prepared to swing again.
RE: CARNIVOROUS - The Sentinel - Feb 16 2021
The Sentinel wasted no time. There was one brief flicker of doubt--Vargas had impressed upon him the necessity of not seriously harming someone in a spar.
Was this a spar-? It was called a test. Ah, well; there was always the chrysalis.
He tensed, then thrust forward, his full weight behind the halberd: its point aimed for what he could only assume was the throat of the hooded creature.
The tip of the halberd was a spike; some eight or ten inches long. If he could simply tear it through whatever lay beneath that hood...
His gaze was calculating, his movement strong and swift. But would it be enough-?
For an instant, the Sentinel found himself in an empty cave. It was as if his opponent had vanished: and in its stead was silence, dark and colorless, drifting with motes of dust in the nothing. Before he could register this, and even as he stumbled, the world had returned--but the moment of confusion had likely cost him dearly.
RE: CARNIVOROUS - Game Master Bunny - Feb 16 2021
The Black beast dodged beneath the point with unnatural agility and, indeed, the moment's lapsing from reality was a costly one.
It took sweeping strides forward, closing the distance. In one hand, it flipped its Talon so its elegantly curved point was at the head of its swing. It would not kill if it landed, but it would hurt if it hit home: hooking squarely into the Sentinel's right-hand ribcage.
It was a cruel, punishing attack.
It took sweeping strides forward, closing the distance. In one hand, it flipped its Talon so its elegantly curved point was at the head of its swing. It would not kill if it landed, but it would hurt if it hit home: hooking squarely into the Sentinel's right-hand ribcage.
It was a cruel, punishing attack.
RE: CARNIVOROUS - The Sentinel - Feb 16 2021
He flinched--the ear-structures flicking back as far as they'd allow, the jerk of his head and upper torso a twist as he tried to avoid the strike.
His own halberd snapped back, a clumsy retract from the missed forward thrust--and there was no time to do anything but slam it upward, still slightly to the side. At best, it would shove the hooded beast's own Talon, backward-edge of the blade first, back toward its chest. That was the basic intent of the attack, as instinctive and automatic as it was--and completely without grace: an upward slam, a movement of last resort, to repel the Talon back at its own wielder.
Who is this, who wields my blade? Who is this, who mirrors the Sentinel, but is not-? he wondered, puzzled. He had not known that there were more than one of this halberd in existence--did not, even, know the weapon's name.
So who was this, then, this mysterious enemy..? And why was it wearing a hood?
RE: CARNIVOROUS - Game Master Bunny - Feb 16 2021
The halberd smarted along the shaggy fur of a face, bones cracking. Dark blood wept from the fresh gash, staining the already-pitchy Talon in his hands. The figure snapped backwards from the momentum, head tilting back—back far enough for the black cloth to fall around broad shoulders. Still, though, there was not a sound from it.
There was an unmistakably canine face staring at the Sentinel, one eye milky and the other a dull blue. Scars criss-crossed the snout, Oily and wretched. If there'd been time to, he would've noticed that flesh seemed to slough off the spot where metal had met flesh. Dark bones glinted in the wetness.
Black moved to push forward, both hands on the Talon's pole and applying as much forward force as possible. It miscalculated, lost its grip, and found the weapon pressed against its chest. It staggered backwards, stumbling to get its balance and lean back on its halberd.
2/3
There was an unmistakably canine face staring at the Sentinel, one eye milky and the other a dull blue. Scars criss-crossed the snout, Oily and wretched. If there'd been time to, he would've noticed that flesh seemed to slough off the spot where metal had met flesh. Dark bones glinted in the wetness.
Black moved to push forward, both hands on the Talon's pole and applying as much forward force as possible. It miscalculated, lost its grip, and found the weapon pressed against its chest. It staggered backwards, stumbling to get its balance and lean back on its halberd.