Now You're Useful? (Clyde)

by **Aello** on November 29th, 2011, 2:11 am

Aello's eyes kept on growing wider and wider as her heart continued to pound. She was moving all the more furiously through the forest, hopping over fallen branches and leaves in a desperate attempt to get away. But it was too late. Flickers of red, brown and green appeared in her vision. The tiniest wisps of various auras further off down the invisible road which led west. More were appearing in the north, causing her to finally give in, to stop running.

"We make our stand here," Aello whispered, her voice betraying both her fear, and how winded she was beginning to feel. The girl slowly raised her bow in the direction of the west as another shriek cut through the forest. Her muscles ached as her eyes darted back and forth, constantly searching for signs of more of them. "We cannot avoid them. We cannot run, we must fight," Aello whispered, as she forced herself to take a deep breath and rid the nervous tension from her body, to the best of her ability.

This is as good a place as any to fight, Aello's mind whispered as she took one last look around, before allowing herself to close her left eye, and peer down the line her arrow made. She was inching the string back, glancing down at one line of trees which surrounded the small clearing she and Clyde now found themselves in. The clearing was lined with a bed of hard soil, closely packed but dry. Something that would kick up clods of dirt should their impending skirmish grow too heated. Patches of grass were scattered about the trees around the edges. Save for that, there was no other life in the area itself, save the two humans, who were waiting to meet their fate.

"Just try to stay calm when they come. Try to keep your wits about you... there will be many," Aello whispered, as she pulled the bowstring back past her right ear and waited. She could sense that the monsters to the west would hit them first. It was only a matter of time...

______________________

The tallest of the monsters came crashing out from behind the line of trees first. Moving at a dead run. The yukman was far taller than Aello, by nearly a head. She guessed the creature to be about five feet and seven inches, with elongated limbs. Cracked knuckles and slender fingers with blades of grass for nails. Her body was bare, save for a thick coat of mica covering her chest, her arms in winding bracelets, which reminded the girl of snakes coiled around a tree. The same could be said of the dark skin above her ankles.

The mica glimmered in the sunlight which shone in streamers through row upon row of tree branches, devoid of all leaves. It sparkled a pale silver, reminding Aello of the glitter she once liked to play with as a small child. The yukman shrieked as she inched closer and closer, pumping her arms alongside her legs as she moved. Her dark eyes locked on Aello's as the girl inched her bow from left to right, guiding the arrow towards a weak spot. An area not covered in rock, even if it were only a thin layer.

It did not take the girl long to find such a location. Her lips curled into a nervous grin as she pulled the string back even farther for good luck. Eyed the space where her arrow was pointed; the area where the creature's neck met her right shoulder. A fraction of a second later, Aello had let go of the string. Her arrow shot forth, towards her opponent; the string vibrated, producing a gentle hum, which seemed to add to the heat of the moment. The first shot fired in battle. The first time the string whacked the girl's left arm. The first time anyone had made a move.

Aello reloaded her bow as swiftly as she could, as she watched her arrow fly out of the corner of her eye. She could see it soaring closer and closer to the mica-covered yukman. See the monster making no attempt to move out of the arrow's way. It was but a matter of seconds until the girl had loaded another arrow onto the serving and raised her bow to shoot again. A matter of seconds before the arrow met its mark. Lodging itself just below the creature's right shoulder. The beast hardly missed a beat, hardly staggered back from the blow as she let out another horrifying shriek. Something which chilled Aello's blood, as the first of the creature's began to spill. To fall to the forest floor.

It had taken mere seconds for more of the monsters to appear. Each flanking the first yukman to show itself. Although, they were a few steps behind. The one on mica's right was male. A long bed of hair flowing down the length of his back. It appeared to Aello as though it were dried wheat, somehow dyed so that it would appear the color of a raven's feathers, as opposed to a mixture of light browns and yellows. His arms were short, as were his legs, causing the girl to doubt he was any taller than she. His arms were muscular however, much more so than her own, and were covered in a series of dark stones, which shone like obsidian. Each was woven like a band across his arms. His hands. Pushed into his knuckles, giving the illusion that they were clubs. A weapon in and of themselves. The rest of his body was relatively bare, save for a mass of dirt and dark stone, which appeared to be woven into the lower portion of his body, as though they were garments.

The third yukman materialized out of the line of trees to mica's left. This one was caught at a height in-between the other two. Her form was far more slender, and simple- cracked skin lined with a blanket of dirt and grime. It was all she wore, save for the sparkling red gemstones which lined the points of her eyes. They flashed in the light, a blood red, which could be nothing other than a ruby. Had Aello not been occupied trying to position her bow for another shot at mica, she would have been distracted by the strangely alluring, and largely naked form of the other monster trying to kill herself and her companion.

But Aello, was indeed, occupied, inching her bow a little lower before releasing another arrow, which merely grazed over mica's left shoulder, before lodging itself in a tree no more than a few paces behind her. The raven feathers swayed lightly, as all three monsters shrieked, and Aello lowered her bow. As she reached for her dagger and wound her right hand around the hilt. And now the real fun begins, she thought.

OOCYes... I did name the yukman. Yes, you should be very, very afraid. I figured, as before mentioned, that the monsters could come in waves for us to fight. The next should come from the north, or again, from the same direction I think, since Aello noticed those areas being inhabited first. Then it can be a free for all. *shrugs*

by **Clyde Sullins** on November 29th, 2011, 2:12 pm

Clyde had quickly came to a run trying to keep up with Aello. Though she was a foot shorter than him, she was also much more lithe, and seemed to move through the forest like water down a swift river. Clyde on the other hand was not so graceful, repeatedly hitting body parts on his way through the forest, and was soon sporting several bruises from their mad dash through the woods.

Clyde barely kept up, and was startled once more as she came to a halt. He happily gulped in air, only to hear that they had not gotten away, and would be fighting soon.

He fought to get his breathing back under control, and concentrated on his res, using a slight twist of his hand to make it begin to swirl. He broke off a bit of it from the main, letting it stream off as the ball spun. Then he formed the res, elongating it. He would be ready when the first foe came.

Making a series of hand and arm movements, the smaller bit of the res he had broken off changed from a ball, and got longer, turning into a long spike of res, about the size of his forearm. It was much smaller and thinner than other res he had used for lightning, so the result would be much smaller, but hopefully much less dangerous to be used at this range. If he used a full sized lightning bolt, it would obliterate his foe in one attack, along with taking a considerable amount of his res, and probably doing damage to them also. Better to use this smaller version instead.

He assumed Aello knew which way she was pointing, that it was the way from which the enemy would be coming, so he pointed himself that way to, and readied his spike to be thrown, along with starting to form a second one by spliting it off of the larger ball of res, which by know was of decent size, and he had stopped adding to, so as to concentrate on his attacks to come.

Just as he nearly had the second spike of res to be used for lightning almost as long as the first, a creature burst out. It was Clydes first look at what they were facing. He could hear there cries as more came, and readied himself, looking quickly over there form which appeared human, if not for the detritus covering there bodies made of soil, rock, and other elements.

He froze as he heard it shriek, but did not attack as he saw Aello prepare to attack. He would leave that one to her, and take whatever came next. In the blink of an eye the arrow had vanished from Aello's bow, and was standing out of the creatures body. But it hardly seemed affected, barely slowing as it was struck. Clyde was a bit surprised, if a man had been hit like that, he would be lying bleeding out. But this was seemed to just keep going, barely noticing it, just shrieking louder for the pain he assumed it felt from the blow...

But before he had time to ponder it for long, a second creature came out, and then a third, each one on opposite sides of the first. Clyde maneuvered the first spike he had made, aiming it at the male one on the right. Then with a sudden thrust of his free hand, he set it moving, directing the forearm long spike at the chest of the beast. He got it moving fast, keeping it aimed at his foe, waiting till it got to the edge of his control before transmuting it to lightning.

All at once it was out of his control, and was just a normal bolt of lightning. The transformation was done as soon as it begun, and faster than could be perceived it had struck. Clyde looked away just as he changed it, but still saw a flash of light from the corner of his eyes, and heard a loud cracking sound.

Blinking a few times, he looked back, to check to see what his magic had hit. He was happy to see it had struck, though not exactly as he had aimed it. He had aimed at the chest, and had only struck the arm of the creature. Or what used to be a arm. Now there was a gaping whole from where the bolt had hit it, a few inches below its shoulder down its arm. Now its right arm hung useless at its side, blood flowing out of it at an alarming rate, the arm only hanging on by a bit of flesh. It looked like his arm had exploded!

Clyde looked over at the beast, as it was now laying on the ground a decent bit off, having been knocked by the strike to its body. But suddenly the creature stirred, slowly raising back to standing. Amazingly it was not dead, and was still coming at them, though admittedly much slower this time than the first. It let out a strangely garbled screech, which was not as loud as the previous ones, but still showed it had fight in it.

Obviously these things did not die easy. But Clyde pulled his attention back to the scene at hand. He had injured one of them pretty well, and also slowed it down. It would not reach them for a bit. But there was still the one on the left, and the one that Aello had shot with an arrow.

Altering the course of the other bolt of lightning to aim at the one on the left, he aimed once more for the largest bit of mass of the creature, its bare chest. Though Clyde could not help but notice that this one was female, and rather attractive. If only it was not trying to kill them... But once more Clyde forced his attention back to fighting, and readied to toss his bolt of lightning at it.

Once more he looked away at the last moment, just as he transmuted the slightly smaller spike of res into lightning. But this time his aim was not as good. As he blinked and looked back at were his bolt had gone, he saw it had gone a foot wide, and had instead struck a tree. The place were it struck was a smoldering black spot, right at the base of a branch. Said branch which was now burning strongly on the ground at the base of the tree. A few seconds later, the dead leaves near the burning branch caught flame to, making the fire grow, quicking spreading to catch other nearby dead leaves aflame.

"Oops..." Clyde muttered as he saw what he had done. Hopefully the fire would not spread to much, or it might burn down all of the trees. But he wondered for a moment, would that make the beasts flee, or attract even more to the flickering light of the flames?

Trying to make one last attack, before the yukmen got any closer, he broke off another bit of the res with a movement, forming this one into a ball. Concentrating on it for a moment, he snapped his fingers, and the outside of the globe of res about the size of a small melon burst into flame. Moving once more, he directed it at the one on the left which he had missed, it moving swiftly as a fireball at it. Once more he waited till it reached near the edge of his control, before uttering Vaknut, a word in the ancient tongue. As he did, the core of the fireball also became flame, seconds before it struck the female yukman on the left. This attack hit it straight in the face, bursting its entire head into flames. It let out a loud screech, as it brought both hands up to claw at the flames... But besides its reaction, it seemed to be running just as fast straight at them. Well not everything worked perfectly.

For that really was the difference between the two attacks. He could form a fireball rather quickly, and with little effort, and it was easy to guide it to a target as it moved at a medium speed. However it did not do as much damage as a bolt of lightning, which was debilitating when it struck. However it was much harder to guide the lightning to a specific target, especially when said target was moving, as it moved so fast it was gone as soon as it was transmuted. Along with that, it took a lot longer to make ready a spike of res for lightning, as it was a much more compacted and compressed form of res than the loose globe of res used in a fireball.

by **Aello** on November 30th, 2011, 1:29 am

The beast was upon Aello within a matter of seconds, curling her hands into fists and pulling the right one back so it rested against her ear, before pushing it forward, towards the center of the girl's face. So it would strike her nose were she not careful. The girl however, saw the strike coming and quickly side-stepped, sweeping her weapon-laden arms out to her sides to steady herself. The movement being so hurried and unstable, that she would force herself to tumble over, should she fail to be even remotely cautious.

The beast's fist swept past the girl, forcing a single streak of air across her skin. Causing the ends of her hair to curl, before falling against her back. The yukman shrieked as her hand forced away the thick air, and nothing more. Aello could see her eyes filled with rage, as she took sight of the girl standing behind her. Instantly, the beast turned, whipping her hand back around to strike the side of Aello's face. This caused Aello to place all of her weight on her left leg, as she curled her body into the strike, raising her arm and whipping her blade around, allowing it to collide with the side of mica's arm. A thin line of red ripped through the bed of rock, causing it to flake to the forest floor.

Aello watched the rocky flakes sparkle in the light of the sun as they sank into a place beneath her boot. Splitting into hundreds of tiny pieces as the heel dug into it. Causing them to glimmer across the dusty earth. She pulled her blade away from the monster's arm as swiftly as she could, smiling as her eyes settled upon the few crimson droplets that fell from the seams. The yukman shrieked as she lashed out at the girl with her injured arm, serving only to widen the mark upon her flesh. The girl, distracted by the sight of the blood, failed to move out of the way, or block the creature's advance. This caused her to bite her bottom lip as soon as the pain began to register in her mind. As soon as her skin began to sink beneath the weight of the yukman's flesh, the force she was exerting upon her.

The pain began in the center of Aello's right arm, where the beast had struck, but slowly radiated outwards. Coursing through her flesh as though they were lightning bolts. The girl pulled her arm away from the beast, and stepped back with her right foot, allowing the left to lead. Her left arm swung forward, bringing her bow with her. The weapon swung out to the side, humming through the thick air, until it came within an inch of the beast's side. Oh for crying out loud Aello, you can't fight with that. You'll bloody well break the thing. And then what will you have left to remember them by? the girl's mind whispered.

That caused Aello to take a few steps back, and take a deep breath, in through her nose, and out through her mouth to steady herself. To allow herself but a moment to think before mica rounded on her. But the breath was not at all as calming as the girl had expected, for she caught her first wisp of smoke. Heard the fire crackle as the leaves broke into tiny pieces. As they were licked up by glowing orange flames. The girl's heart stopped for a moment, before picking up the pace. She absently took another step back to avoid another of the yukman's strikes. Damnit Clyde, what did you do? Aello's mind wondered, as she raised her blade, so it would smack the lower portion of the beast's fist. Are you trying to get us all killed?

As the yukman came forward again, pushing her fist towards the girl, Aello spun around her body. She hugged her bow as close to her side as she could, as she allowed her dagger-wielding hand to inch outwards. To follow the twirling motion of her body, much like her hair, which twisted madly around her, blocking most of the area from view. She was just about to sink her blade into the creature's flesh, when it wheeled away, causing her to continue twirling after it. "You know Clyde," Aello shouted over everything, "I'm glad you're trying to be useful and all... especially after what happened the last few times we met." Aello grunted as the beast struck her side, causing her to twirl away. "I'm happy... you finally see reason... but you should be more careful." Aello grunted, as she turned to face the monster, and lazily block each of her punches with her blade. "Because fire catches quickly here... it'd be a shame if we can't simply, put it out."

Aello growled as her blade slid between the spaces that rested against each of the yukman's fingers. She swept her arm around in a small circle, tossing the yukman's hand away, and cutting across a few fingers. A new blanket of warm blood covered her blade as she swept forward, and thrust her weapon into the center of the creature's chest. Chipping the sheet of rock, and causing it to curl into the blade. The creature shrieked as she beat both of her hands against Aello's shoulders, with lessening force. Her body bending into her knees, curling, and then stumbling to the forest floor. Aello followed her down, and extracted her blade. Righted herself.

Mica, after all, was not the only fight to be had.

by **Clyde Sullins** on November 30th, 2011, 9:36 pm

It seemed these things were very difficult to kill. Aello had shot one with an arrow, and it still did not go down. He had gotten one in the leg, and it still limped along with blood pumping out, pulling its useless leg held by nothing but sinew... And the other... Well he had caught its head on fire, and it was still running around. Though coming to think of it, if someone caught a persons head on fire, they would probably still run around for a while to... maybe he had done a bit of damage to it to...

Clyde started shaping one more spike of res, splitting it off from the main portion of the mass of res he had hovering before him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aello jam a dagger into the chest of a yukman, and then watched as it stopped moving, a lay dead... At least he was pretty sure it was dead.

But that meant there was only two left, one for each of them! As he finished shaping the spike of res, he looked between the two. Surely Aello could get the one that was distracted by its head burning. He could get the one he had crippled. Plus that one was moving a lot slower, and would not reach them nearly as soon as the one with its head aflame, which was still letting out an incessant screech... Could Yukmen feel pain?

Regardless, he needed to act... And suddenly he had an idea... Maybe catching the woods on fire was not such a bad idea... After all, it meant plenty of fuel for his fire reimancy...

"Good job Aello, I will get the one closer to the flames, the male one. I just realized I should try to suck that wild flame up for my reimancy! You get the other one, since you already killed yours."

Clyde ran on, assuming she would do as he asked, not really even considering the unfairness of what he was asking. But in Clydes mind, each of them taking one was completely fair... Perhaps this was yet another symptom of his previous overgiving, and the bit of damage it had done to his reasoning.... And mind... Sometimes it was hard to tell between what was simply him thinking selfishly, and his incorrect thought processes...

Though the fact that he realized his brain was messed up was a good thing for him right? It meant most of his mental reasoning was still intact, and he was smart enough to notice the difference in himself... Though it also made it more dangerous for others, as he was usually able to hide it...

Going on, he finished shaping his spike of res, only a bit shorter than the previous ones, which were about the length of his forearm. Aiming it, he prepared, and then sent it moving. Once more, as it reached the edge of his control, he aimed it once more, turned his face away from the soon to come light, and transmuted it into lightning.

As usual, there was a flash of light, a booming cracking sound, and... A splatter of gore?

Clyde turned back once more, blinking his eyes, spots swimming in his vision. There stood the yukman, normal more or less it seemed... Until his eyes adjusted fully, and he realized that he had hit the yukman right in the face, more or less leaving a big burnt whole on the front were its face used to be, and a big hollow spot were the inside of his skull used to be. He stood for a few seconds, and then his knees buckled, and twitching, he fell flat to the ground, blood oozing out of the whole in his face... Apparently he had been pretty lucky with that attack... Though he had been aiming at its chest...

Clyde stood and watched in surprise for a few more seconds, before jerking back to attention, and recalling he was in a fight, and did not have time to stand and stare at his handy work. Getting moving once more, he headed for the spreading flames, with his big ball of res floating before him. Once he got close enough, his big mass of res would easily be able to suck up the flames to be used for fuel for further attacks.

by **Aello** on December 1st, 2011, 4:01 am

"Some things never do change, do they Clyde?" Aello called, as her eyes darted around the clearing, until they settled upon the largely nude form of the female yukman. They followed the line of her curves, inching lower and lower, towards the beast's feet, and away from her burning head. "You always did make me clean up after you," the woman sighed, as she forced her eyes onto the flames. The way they danced, seemingly rejoicing at the monster's pain. Feeding off her pained shrieks. Crackling with pleasure; its form of a sinister laugh. "Although, this one seems the least of all our former troubles."

With that, Aello darted forward, towards the shrieking yukman, who had her arms raised over her head. She was swinging them back and forth as she ran, occasionally batting at the flames with them, as though in an attempt to put them out. She seemed to be running in circles.

That one is going to be painfully easy to kill, Aello thought, as she darted forward. As she moved, she swept her right arm out to the side, and as she inched closer, within striking distance, she swept the blade inwards, in a wide arc. The yukman, distracted by the fact that the flames were now inching lower and lower, licking the bottom of its neck, made no motion to block. This allowed Aello to easily sink her blade into the creature's right arm. Towards the base, where the shoulder met with its length.

The creature let out an even more powerful, and bone chilling shriek than usual, as the girl dug her blade inwards. Forcing the skin to break and spill fresh blood, that covered her blade, and dripped off its ends in an instant. Aello could see the blade about an inch deep now, as the yukman swung its arms wildly at her, forcing the girl to back away and out of reach, after the blows had rained down on her shoulders a few times.

Aello practically cringed as the creature continued shrieking. Causing her to reluctantly, move forward again, and this time, as the beast neared the flames Clyde had started, extend her right leg. She turned it onto its side, and pressed it into the beast's waist, forcing her back just enough that she stumbled into the fire. The flames licked her feet, and then, slowly climbed. Consuming her body as the fire atop her head spread past her neck onto her shoulders.

Aello pulled her leg back, and watched the monster scream. Pressing her hands into its face, against its eyes, as though that could make the horrors of what was happening to her go away. The fire that engulfed her roared, sending spirals of grey smoke into the air.

Aello simply watched, how could this creature stand it?

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the creature fell onto its knees, and then, onto is back. Aello strode forward, and turned her blade towards the ground. A second later, she had crouched down a little, and thrust it into the center of the creature's chest. The creature's chest seemed to curl into it, as she shrieked again at the contact, and then, fell silent. Her eyes closed; dead. The scent of her burning chest filled Aello's nostrils as she pulled away, blood dripping off her dagger. She turned to face Clyde, to see how he is doing.

At least the boy can kind of, sort of, not really handle himself these days, Aello thought, as she pointed at the fire atop the fallen yukman with a finger she had curled off the hilt of her dagger. "You might want to get to that next," Aello called, "for it will spread faster... unless, maybe the dirt will keep it from getting far," Aello stammered, as her vision was jerked away from the flame and towards the north. Several shrieks could be heard coming from that direction. Several specs of color; flickering misty light.

Aello curled her finger back onto the dagger, as several more shrieks came from the direction mica and her crew had come from. Prepare yourself, her mind whispered, as the first of the monsters appeared in the north. This yukman was rather large. Probably somewhere around six feet tall, and rather wide. Not at all muscular, but wide. Like one of those kids you'd never want to pick to be on your team during a relay-race. He moved slowly, his large belly shaking as he ambled through the forest. The girl was convinced she could see sweat pouring down his brow. Her eyes grew wide. In the name of Dira, that thing could knock the whole world out! Aello thought, as her muscles began to tense, rippling beneath her flesh. She lowered herself into a crouch, allowing her eyes to settle on the thick bark which covered his legs, as though they were a pair of pants.

At the last moment, just before the creature was going to come barreling into her, Aello ran out of the way, letting the fat yukman dart past. "Hey Clyde," she called. "Think you can get the chubby one... it seems unlikely that anything sharp will manage to do much damage," Aello muttered, as another yukman came crashing through the line of trees where mica and her crew had first emerged. Instantly, Aello willed her magic away, for it was making her tired. After all, she needed to concentrate, for she doubt this would be the final wave of monsters.

The girl gulped again, as she caught sight of the latest yukman. This one was tall too, but not as tall as his fat friend, which the girl nicknamed "ram," considering how he seemed to be using his body as though it were a battering ram. Aello guessed that the latest yukman was about 5'9, with dark brown skin, cracked all over, giving the impression that he had been recently baked. His body was covered in a sheet of dirt, and what appeared to be tiny clods of grey rock, and grass. His eyes were a blazing, deep violet, which strangely enough, seemed to accentuated his muscular form.

Aello's mouth fell open. "Petch."

by **Clyde Sullins** on December 1st, 2011, 4:42 pm

Clyde approached the flames, just as Aello was knocking a yukman into it. He watched for a bit as they fought, and then once she had it dead, wasted no time in acquiring the flames. Taking on a completely serious demeanor, he looked at the flames, and focused on his task, all expression slipping from his face due to his concentration.

Moving his hands in a series of gestures, he held one up before him stiff, in a fist around his staff, representing the ball of res which he had kept floating in the air. It was smaller from the three spikes he had taken out for lightning, but was still a decent size.

Then with his other hand, he held it out flat and parallel to the ground, moving it to near his waist. This one was meant to represent the flame all of the ground, and the tree, near were he was standing.

Muttering the word for fire once more, Vanui, he slowly began raising his flat hand closer to his hand held stiffly as a fist. As he did, bits of fire began to be sucked up off were it was, to attach to the outside of the large ball of res. Really he was activating elemental attraction to the ball of res, making it pull fire near it to itself. His gestures were just a way to help him visualize this, and make it more neat and restrained than without it. Already there was a thin coating of flame covering the ball of res.

By the time he had raised his flat hand about halfway to his fist, great gobs of flame were being sucked up, as if it was a void hanging in the air sucking in objects. Soon even more was coming up, some large bits of flame were sucked up so strong it even moved the logs and sticks they were attached to.

Finally, his flat hand reached his fist, and almost all of the flame within several meters of his ball of res was gone, now formed into a thick layer of flame on the ball of res. Similar to how he had made his fireballs before, this was a large core of res at the center, covered by a large layer of natural flame, swirling all around it in the air and giving off a warm glow of heat. Which was nice, since it warmed him up, considering how cold it was outside today.

He held his giant fireball in front and above him, ready to use it when needed.

All around them was a scorched black area, dead twigs, branches, leafs turned to ash, and several trees with large burnt area on them, though they were so thick they had not had time to burn all of the way through.

All of this had not taken to long, but it had requires Clyde's attention, and now that he was done he needed to focus on the battle at hand. He noticed once more that more yukmen were coming, so he prepared himself, ready to send a gout of flame at anything he wanted to attack.

As Aello mentioned something about Clyde taking this one, his attention jerked back, to see a large lumbering yukman close to his own size. Still holding his one hand flat against his fist, which was wrapped around his staff, he made a motion, slowly jerking the flat hand from his fist. As he did, a gout of flame shot out of the ball, sweeping over the yukman and catching his entire body aflame, leaving a burnt trail in its path were it struck.

The fat yukman let out a screech of pain, tilting its head back and letting out a loud wail. Clyde took this opportunity to move his reimancy a bit more, building up a glob of flame on the side of the fireball closest to the yukman totally on fire. Motioning once more with a quick jerk of his hand, the glob of compressed fire smacked into the belly of the yukman, knocking it off of its feet from the force of it, and sending it onto its back, along with leaving a crater in its stomach from were the attack struck.

Clyde looked over, wondering if it was dead, His entire body was tensed, ready to send another gout of flame if the beast moved in the least. This was a much more skilled and serious side of Clyde, when he was truly in his element. Fire after all was what he was the best at using.

oocNot sure if the thing is dead or not, I guess you can say it on your post. If it is still alive, feel free to rp me sending down another gout of flame to roast the monster. I love fire.... Mwah ha ha ha ha!!!

ooc2Sorry, got a bit ego-maniacal there. Just trying to embrace Clyde's slow slide into the ocean of evil he is drifting into...

by **Aello** on December 2nd, 2011, 6:14 pm

The sun-baked beast shrieked, and then lunged for Aello. His arms shooting forward and then back again as his long legs pushed up against the terrain, urging his body forward. Aello's muscles tensed, rippling beneath her flesh, as her body sank into a further crouch. Her right arm inched up from her side, bending at the elbow, her arm curling so that it stood out from her body. Held before her, a single object with which to brace herself should the yukman collide with her.

The girl could see the creature's muscles rippling beneath its own flesh as it neared. She took one deep breath, in through the nose, and out through the mouth, before it was upon her. As the yukman dragged his fists back, preparing to strike, Aello shot forward, nudging his broad chest with his shoulder. His body being as strong as it was, failed to sink against her form. Refused to be budged. He stood tall, as Aello pulled herself away, just out of reach of the fists he had just extended to punch her. To bring her down.

That is the last time we try to take down someone of his size with our own, Aello thought, as she pulled her dagger out to the right side of her body, just as the beast clipped her shoulder with his fist, for she failed to dart completely out of reach. As he began to pull his hand back, Aello forced her blade towards her left shoulder. It curled around to the side, and struck the creature's fist, along its side. It dug into the space between his curled fingers, forcing tiny cuts onto his split skin. Trickles of blood dripped over the sides of the man's fists as the yukman continued to pull back, forcing Aello's blade to slide along the fingers, severing several of the tips.

Aello watched as the darkened bits of flesh sank into the dirt beneath their feet. The yukman howled in pain as fresh blood sprouted from his stubby hands. Aello jerked the dagger back, trying to be strong even though she wanted to cringe at the sound of the beast's shrieks. She pulled her weapon to her side, as she watched the beast out of the corner of her eye. That is just a pitiful sight, Aello thought, as she watched him for a moment, studying his injured hand, before looking up at her angrily, knowing this would not have happened should she not have been around. You should finish him off, end his misery...

As soon as the creature had realized, he rounded on Aello, lunging for her, and swinging his arms rapidly. Droplets of blood spurted away from him. A shower of red which buffeted Aello and dripped down her face, her clothes. As the creature swung his arms, Aello would raised her right one to block. Moving it as swiftly as she could so the creature could not land a second attack. After a fashion, in which each fighter repeated the same motions, Aello grew tired. Instead of blocking yet another punch, she spun around the creature, and sank her blade into its back.

The yukman, howled, before turning around rapidly and swinging his arms at Aello, who had already extracted her blade, and danced away. The yukman chased her, moving his arms rapidly to strike. Aello, continually blocking and spinning around him, sinking her blade into his flesh at random, until he fell to the forest floor, a shrieking mass of broken, bleeding flesh.

By this time, Aello's nostrils were flaring. The scent of charred flesh stinging their insides, causing them to grow red. "Thanks Clyde," Aello muttered, as she stood beside her fallen yukman, turned her blade towards the ground, and then thrust it into the back of his head. The creature's body jerked at the impact, as more blood spurted from the wound, bathing Aello's hand in fresh blood. When she was done, Aello straightened her legs back up, and turned to Clyde. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly, and her heart refused to slow down. She was practically panting.

The girl could hear more of the shrieking off in the distance, but knew it couldn't be long before more yukman came. "How many of those orbs can you put your mind to at once?" Aello hollered. "How many can you control without hurting yourself?" Aello would wait a moment for Clyde to reply before continuing. "More of those monsters are coming. You won't last, using your power in that matter. Your body shall succumb to overgiving long before their waves have stopped coming for us. YOU WILL COLLAPSE, and then, I'll be left to drag you into the city, when this is all over. Assuming I survive myself. Assuming they don't tear you from limb to limb first," Aello added, hastily flicking her dagger wielding hand towards the forest. The shrieks. "I need to know if you can put a ring of fire around the tips of my arrows. The magic you use will be lessen, reducing your risk of overgiving. Together we can spread the fire. But I need to know you have enough control. Enough power to put your mind to many things at once, for surely, they'll come faster than I can shoot." Aello paused. "You must also concentrate. Light everything but the area closest to my arrows, so they do not burn. They are not designed for this... but desperate times call for desperate measures."

Aello paused for a moment as she heard another shriek. As her head shot back and forth, her eyes searching the terrain, wondering where they were coming from. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. "Can you do it Clyde? Or do we have to hope that there are less of them than suspected? Should we start praying to Dira to be kind to our souls in the next life? Or should we ask her to please, by some miracle, save us?" Aello asked, as she returned her gaze to him. "We cannot fight them all... not like this..."

OOCCay makes me happies. She has such good ideas.

Also... feel free to add some monsters in. And if you need any clarification, just ask.

by **Clyde Sullins** on December 7th, 2011, 1:42 am

Clyde tried to catch his breath, taking a moment to soothe himself, before the next attack. But it was not long before he could hear shrieks in the air. Turning back to Aello, he let out a breath, consigning himself to more fighting. Know that things were going, he had to finish it, if he wanted to live.

Keeping his one hand at the ready, he focused for a second on his ball of res and flames. He had already used a good bit of the res he had at first created using fire balls and lightning strikes, and the several gout's of flame he had shot off had used a good bit the flame he had gathered from the environment.

And just exuding more res was not an answer. He was already feeling a bit tired from the res he exuded before, and the sweat running down his neck certainly had nothing to do with heat, when it was this cold. He needed to be more careful, as this fight was taking its toll, as would be expected from this much magic. He was just lucky he was only feeling tired, because after that was exhaustion, and then the first signs of overgiving. But he was not that far yet.

So he was open to the idea that Aello had, for them to work together, and try to fight off the attacks. Though it was an interesting idea she had.

"Not really sure, I could try more, but I wont know until I do it. A ring of fire around the tips?... Hmmm.... I could probably coat the tip of the arrow in solid res... Then if I focus I can keep it from getting to the wooden shaft.... And once you launch them.... I can transmute them to fire once it gets to the edge of my control, letting the tips be coated in flame just as it is in the air..."

Most of this was more Clyde speaking things out in his head, than actually talking to Aello. He would nod to her, and take one of her arrows, holding the other hand up, dropping his staff to the ground. Making a movement of his hand, a bit of the res from his ball split of, as he guided it to the arrow tip. Then with a twist of his hand, it hit the tip, smearing over it. With one last move, he settled it in, and handed the arrow to Aello.

"I think that one is ready, just warn me before you shoot it, so I can know to transmute it. Just yell launch or fire or something, so I will know and be ready."

Taking a second arrow, he did the same thing to the second one as the first, and then again to a third arrow. Holding them at the ready to hand them to Aello, he kept focused as well as he could, keeping the res stable on the three arrows, and keeping his ball of res and its coating of res floating there still intact. He should be able to handle that, and be able to transmute one arrow at a time... But much more than that... And he might be straining thinking of so many things at once....

oocSo, I have three arrows ready, you can assume I am lighting them midflight after you launch them, and will hand off the next one when you shoot one.

by **Aello** on December 7th, 2011, 6:42 pm

Aello simply nodded as she sheathed her dagger, and remained silent as Clyde reached for her arrows. She noted that he always pulled arrows with raven feathers, the cheap ones. Noted how he seemed to push the tips into the bottom of her quiver before extracting them, making her think that he'd never so much as tried to shoot a bow before. Such a pity, she thought, as she raised her bow, and turned it on its side, preparing to load it up with the first arrow.

When Clyde had finished coating the first arrow, Aello plucked it from his grasp, and laced it onto the serving. She wound the three middle fingers of her right hand around it, and began to inch the string back even before she had raised it into a shooting position. "Ok," she whispered, as she closed her left eye and inched the string back past her right ear, ignoring the soft creaking noise the string produced in protest. Hinting that she may have gone too far this time.

Another shriek cut through the air, causing the girl's muscles to tense as she wheeled herself around, thinking that the sound was coming from the other direction this time. She stood, silent, listening as the sounds kept getting louder and louder, until a time in which they stopped completely, only to be replaced by the sound of thundering footsteps. "They're almost upon us," Aello whispered, as she curled her fingers around the string, causing them to turn red, as the line etched itself into her flesh.

Seconds later, the first yukman crashed through the line of trees. It was a shorter one, about Aello's height. A male, with legs far longer than his torso, and short arms. He carried a large stick in his right hand, the ends jagged and split, suggesting that he had ripped it off a tree. His large hand seemed to be digging into the uneven bark, causing his pale flesh to split all the more. The lines tracing up the length of his arms, and into his chubby neck. He was a simple enough figure, covered in dirt and the occasional leaf.

Aello did not hesitate, she moved her bow a few inches to the right, and let go of the string. "Now!" Aello shouted, as the string was sent into a series of rapid vibrations. It hummed almost inaudibly as the girl turned it on its side, and reached for another of her res infused arrows. She laced it onto the string within another second, and lifted her bow again, just as her first shot struck the yukman between the eyes. Two black coals.

The yukman screeched as the impact drove fresh blood from his skull. Screeched as another yukman swept past him. A taller one, maybe 5'5. The second yukman was female, her skin a mixture of yellow and orange. Her body was lined with a series of shimmering red stone. Some dark, some bright, like blood. They circled her form in swirls, artsy designs, meant to distract her prey from her long enough where she could strike.

Aello forced herself to ignore the flashing stone. The way they sparkled alluringly in the sunlight as she guided her bow over the second yukman, tugged on the string some more, inching it back, and then shouted "now!" before releasing it. Sending it soaring towards the female yukman, who was still barreling for the two humans.

As soon as she had let go, Aello reached for the third arrow. "You may want to guide the fire between the lot of them, surely, another will be here soon," she whispered, as she laced the third arrow onto her bow, and prepared to shoot again.

OOCI figured I'd let you describe what the magic did. And where the last arrow struck. I am going to assume however, that at such close range, Aello actually hit the thing.

by **Clyde Sullins** on December 8th, 2011, 3:49 am

Clyde did his best to focus on his magic, completely zoning into it, and nothing else.... But with all of the eminent death and things trying to kill him near, along with their loud shrieks... Well, it was hard to do...

Soon enough Aello took the first arrow from him, and was readying it to be used, leaving him holding two. Focusing on his magic, he barely heard the shriek of the yukman approaching, and so was caught off guard when she spoke, saying they were getting close...

Then she was screaming out NOW, and he quickly felt out his res, and muttered Vaknut under his breath, lighting the arrow aflame a few moments later, as he felt the res getting close to the edge of what he was able to discern... He was so focused on his magic, he did not even bother looking to see what happened, staring down at the remaining arrows.

If he had looked, he would have seen the arrow launch, arc through the air, suddenly burst into flames, and finally hit its mark, right between the eyes. This hit surely did more damage than normal, and seemed to sink into the surface of the monsters skin much easier than previous mundane ones. If nothing else, it helped to get the arrow point through the tough mineral like skin most yukmen had. But he did not see whether it fell or not, even though surely that was a pretty good hit, sinking in at least an inch or two, the entire arrow head inside of the yukman.

The second arrow worked more or less in the same fashion, though in not quite the same way. There had been a gush of blood, and then more seeping out of the front of the creatures head were the arrow hit with the first one. This time, as it was lit aflame, it also struck the head. However this time it struck straight into one of the vulnerable eyes of the yukman, the red hot heat of the arrowhead poking out of the back of its skull. It hit so hard, it more or less instantly pulverized the eye, and kept going pushing through the back of the skull, leaving a whole there, as a torrent of gore and blood shot out of the space were it had traveled.

Even more blood gushed out of the new whole partially filled in the back of its head by the arrow head, along the new tunnel through the yukmans head... Apparently that one had reacted a bit oddly... And when the arrow bore through, it kept going, and then a bit exploded as it hit the back of the head, blowing the arrow the rest of the way through...

But Clyde did not even notice any of this, as he was so focused on working his magic. He had closed his eyes, trying to take out the distraction of seeing, going just by his sense of touch and sense of res... He passed off his third arrow he had coated earlier to Aello, and pulled three more arrows out of were they were held.

He cleanly broke off another gob of res, and lowered it to the three arrows, focusing completely on smearing it over all of there tips... With a few hand motions, and a twist or two, all of the new ones were ready, and he once more moved to sensing the res on the one Aello held ready... Waiting to hear her tell him she was firing it, he felt were his res was.... Now he had four arrows ready to be used, one in Aello's bow, and the other three in his own hand.