[Quest] Screaming on a Wing and a Prayer [Closed]

[Bayani]

Timestamp: 10th day of Spring 510 AV The powerful gusts of wind and the overwhelming rain had come unexpectedly for the inhabitants of Syliras. There was no way to predict the dark clouds that had rolled in from out the sea would carry so much water with them but Zulrav wasn't a merciless god, while the rainfall was only increasing in strength the wind was fortunately waning in power. The sudden rain shower however was heavy enough to force Syliras' inhabitants to put business on hold and seek shelter in the comfort of their homes or the castle. Which was perhaps all for the better, at least they were safer behind the walls of their home or the shields of the castle guard. There was no way people would take well to the other uninvited guest cruising the sky over their city. It was a creature six meters tall from talons to head, much longer when measured from beak to tail. Its downy feathers refracted light like prism, its beady eyes glowing and eerie golden light easily distinguishable from the lighting crackling around it. The creature flapped its powerful wings, its agile form climbing higher into the sky to avoid the spear of ice that flew into the air in its direction. Below the giant rooster, a young man clad in white was riding a horse hard through an empty avenue in his attempt to keep the flying monster within his sight. This man had the tell-tale features of a vantha though he was dressed in the clothes of a Syliran Knight save for the heavy armor which he didn't seem to have on him. When a stray bolt of lighting surged through the creature, slowing it down but by no means stopping it the vantha extended an empty palm into the air, chanting a single phrase in an empowered shout before water collected into his palm. The water twisted into itself before it started turning semi-solid. At that moment the man who was obviously a wizard of some sort threw the magical projectile into the sky and this time the spear of ice flew in a wide rising arc before separating into several sharper chunks. The shrapnel of ice tore into the creature's wings, and while some of the ice shards harmlessly bounced off its feathers one made its way in an unprotected fleshy point beneath its wings. The creature released a sharp cry and fell a few hundred feet before it recovered. The damage had been sufficient to make flight difficult, but not impossible for the giant fighting cock. Shrieking loudly the avian flapped its wings charging for the lone man, its beak opening to reveal frighteningly sharp teeth. "A little help would be nice!" the vantha cried out, he seemed to be looking around for companions but there were no other agents of the Syliran Knights there but himself. And whatever this creature was it was closing in and fast.

Note: This creature was originally supposed to be a wyvern but had to be replaced. I hope nobody minds.

[Nyahna Sasin]

Sasin let out a loud hiss as a chicken across from the sky. "What the....." He demanded. He started running in that general direction, slipping several times on the wet cobble stones. He disliked using this human form, but was stuck with it for now. Sliding out of a small alleyway into a larger avenue, just in time to find himself between a knight and the wyvern he had seen before. The knight was on horse back, and appeared to be a member of the Sylirian knights. The thing was a huge, feathered chicken like thingy. And it was charging. Cursing, the Dhani leaped out of the way.

"What in Ssiku's name is that!" He demanded, drawing his daggers.

[Seamus Okibbon]

The day was dark and miserable. Rain poured in sheets onto the roofs and cobbles, and Seamus hunched uncomfortably in his saddle, the hood of his heavy woolen cloak pulled far over his face. He had needed to retrieve the cloak from deep in his saddlebags, as he had recently bought a lighter leather jacket for the mild weather of the city.

Someone to the left yelled, but Seamus could not make out all the words. All he picked up through the pound of rain was "-ould be nice!" Seamus ignored the call, concerned more with keeping dry.

The rain made it difficult to see his way through the streets, and the fact that he had just left the Stallion didn't help - he had three ales in his stomach, and the world was a little blurry. Ruby whinnied miserably below him, and Seamus patted her neck consolingly. Neither of them enjoyed the rain, and he swore he was going in circles - all these familiar streets looked foreign in this unusual downpour. He was approaching the intersection of a larger Avenue. Hopefully this will lead me somewhere, perhaps to an inn to find a room for the night. Camping outside the walls will be miserable in this rain...

He was about to rein Ruby to the right onto the avenue when she reared violently, and he barely held on to the startled horse, having to throw his arms around her neck for stability. As she settled, he looked to see what had startled her so horribly.

A Sylirian mage-knight had galloped by on his horse, and had now pulled to a stop on the avenue to the right, his palm raised high, firing bolts of ice at a -

Is that a chicken?

Whatever it was, it was diving hard towards the Knight, and it certianly looked unfriendly. Its feathers were tattered and it seemed injured. Seamus calmed Ruby with a few quiet words, and spurred her into the avenue towards the Knight. Normally, Seamus would not be inclined to help a stranger such as this mage, but the alcohol in his head sparked curiousity, and he longed to put his new dagger to use. Plus, Ruby's erratic rearing had pumped adrenaline into his blood, and he was on edge. As he galloped towards the Knight, he reached with his left hand across his torso and drew the broad bladed assassins dagger.

[Aksia Carataqua]

As Aksia followed Sasin through the woods, she heard a loud, a really, really loud roosters crow. The wind was blowing around her like a surrounding veil. She was covering her eyes, she loved rain, but this was too much. Another roosters crow echoed through the night. A horse cried out in the distance, she summoned up her courage and ran quick and swift towards Sasin and 2 other figures on horses, shards of ice were embedded into the ground and the buildings nearby. "Ice?" she thought "In this time of season? The ice just melted.. one of them must be special...". Aksia ran further into the alleyway , a huge, black shape was standing, screeching in pain. The lightning illuminated the night. Aksia's jaw fell. It was a cock, as in, a male chicken, a rooster. "OI!" she cried out to all of them "IS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE!??!?!". The bird swooped down, the windows on the houses in the alley rattling with the wind as it rushed past them. It opened its mouth to reveal razor sharp teeth. "Dear Rak'keli" she said again, letting her jaw drop again, this time, she was going to react, she wasn't an exceptional fighter, but she hoped that she could act as an annoyance at least, that's what her fighting style did, it was a dance, her dance of blades. She quickly tightened her wrist razors and stamped down, the blade in her boots popped out, and as she held her cloak, with the 5 blades and the 10 flying ribbons attached to it she readied herself. "This is gonna be a long night..." she sighed. "OI!" she cried out loudly "You're not the only one with sharp teeth ya know?!" she smiled, revealing all of her razor sharp teeth. Secret : @ Bayani Oh no, i don't mind at all actually, I actually quite like the rooster, he seems friendly enough XD @ Seamus, thanks for telling me, i wrote it at 12 o clock last night so i was a bit sleepy i guess XD <------- I did secret because i don't know how to do the OOC's.. XD

[Bayani]

The Dhani was wise to leap out of the way because this bird, whatever it was dove down too swiftly, too quickly for even Seamus who was on horseback to reach. Only the timely barrier of ice that had formed between the knight and rooster kept the creature for sinking its claws into the knight's flesh and even then the knight looked winded, if it was result of the massive barrier he had erected in the rush of the moment or if he had been fighting the bird for a long time was anyone's guess.

The following moment Aksia came, blades sticking out, primed to strike at the giant avian but it was perhaps because of the unusual number of her weapons that the bird took his eyes off the knight and the fighter on horseback towards this new interloper.

The rooster looked at the girl, her teeth, and then it too flashed its teeth. Its equally razor sharp teeth which were monumentally larger than the girl's. It flapped its shimmering wings at the charoda would discover one of the bird's many strengths. Its scales while hardly rigid could easily repel her blades, they acted like chainmail, accepting the weapon without letting it penetrate. Only a thrust, with all her weight on it could probably pierce that defense.

During the time the rooster was staring at the girl it would turn its backs towards the three. If there was ever a time for any of them to act, now was the time.

Secret :

Bummer, no magic?

[Seamus Okibbon]

Ruby reeled at the sudden flash of magical energy as the Knight erected a glowing shield of ice. This time she reared so hard that Seamus was thrown from the saddle, his dagger tumbling from his hand and clashing against the cobbles a few feet away. He landed on his rump, his right foot still tangled in the stirrup. Panicking, he twisted his foot in the stirrup, looking for release. He succeeded, but not before he twisted his ankle painfully to the left, nearly spraining it. He yelled in pain, cursed, turned himself over, and scrambled on his hands and knees across the soaking wet cobbles to retrieve his dagger. Wrapping his fingers around the shaft of the weapon, he struggled to his feet.

Meanwhile, a small Charoda girl had appeared, coming from the opposite direction from Seamus. She stood opposite the giant bird from Seamus, and together with the Knight and the Dhani (who Seamus recognised from the Rearing Stallion), they formed a rough circle around the creature. They had power in numbers, but the Knight looked drained from his sudden ice-shield, and Seamus had never thought of himself as a warrior. To make odds worse, the monsterous bird appeared to have a natural armor of multicolored scales.

Seamus cursed at his twisted ankle, and took a defensive stance, his dagger out before him and his free arm protecting his neck and face. The bird had rebounded off the knight's ice-shield, and now stood on the cobbles before him. Oh gods, he's going to come for me...

But something caught the birds eye, and it turned, exposing it's back. The Charoda had taken a battle stance, exposing a set of knives and blades which seemed to be attached to all points of her body. They were bright, and flashed with the lightning above in the stormy sky. A good distraction, but the girl isn't even half the size of this monster. She'll be destroyed... Seamus cursed again. Looked like it was either up to him, or the Dhani.

Seamus dug his heel into the cobble, and broke into a limping run towards the giant bird, attempting to ignore the pain in his ankle . He drew his dagger arm up over his head, preparing to plunge it into the monster's back. He was only five paces away from the bird now. It was the right distance to jump from. Mid run, Seamus dropped into a crouch, and then sprung into the air, his dagger in one hand and the other arm preparing to wrap itself around the creature's neck. He planned to drive the dagger deep into the creature's spine and fell it with one stroke.

As he flew through the air, time seemed to slow down. He felt as if he was flying through the slow-falling raindrops. He had heard of this phenomenon - soldiers claimed that in the final moments before clashing with a foe in battle, time seemed to slow and a strange calm would descend upon the warrior. Seamus felt as if he had all the time in the world to think, but all he could focus on was the impending struggle with the hideous monster ahead of him.

Hell, he was excited.

He bared his teeth, open mouthed, and a loud cry came from his throat, menacing and savage.

It was a war cry.

[Bayani]

The bird was too distracted to pay attention to Seamus and by the time it noticed the sudden rustling of fabric behind him it was too late. The dagger sank into its back but not before the feathers suddenly stiffened, stopping Seamus' dagger from digging into deeply.

In response to the more dangerous threat the bird turned its head and it's beak snapped forward to crush Seamus' head. Or it would have had a small but solid chuck of ice hadn't zipped between its beak and Seamus' scalp narrowly missing both.

Without missing a beat the knight moved in, shield ramming the creature's head forcing it to beat its wings back as it created distance between itself and these men who seemed dead set on killing him.

"Its feathers are magical," the knight shouted over the sound of the bird crying. "They stiffen the moment you try to drive anything through them, try hitting it with something blunt, the armor ignores that kind of attack."

Without waiting for Seamus' reply the vantha charged forward, shield raised protectively in front of him and a ball of condensed water forming in one hand. He wasn't drawing his sword, and it looked like the knight had every intention of ending the fight quickly but he hardly looked like he could last a few more minutes if he kept fighting at the pace he was moving.