Now You're Useful? (Clyde)

by **Aello** on December 8th, 2011, 4:47 am

The male yukman soon crumbled to the ground, yet, despite her wound, the female one would not fall. Why the petch isn't she dead yet? Aello wondered, as she raised the bow a little higher and inched the bowstring back. Seconds later, she had let go of it, without shouting anything to Clyde. She knew she wouldn't need his help to finish this one off, thus, causing her to feel as though it were not worth saying anything to him. After all, she'd need him later, so she couldn't let him needlessly tire himself out.

The bowstring vibrated violently as the arrow shot forth, cutting through the air with a nearly silent hiss towards the wounded yukman. Within seconds, it had lodged itself in the monster's flesh, forcing itself into the area around her heart. The creature shrieked as Aello lowered her bow, and retrieved another arrow from Clyde. As she laced it onto her bow and shut out the rest of the world. The sounds of everything but her opponents. The sight of everything but them. The sight of Clyde, and how he seemed to be doing. How she herself felt, as she willed her magic to her, and checked the forest ahead of her.

There were no wisps. No trickles of color. Just trees. Aello turned to the right, but the same could be said. Then there was the left. Aello turned around completely, and noticed a few streaks of green and red off in the distance. Instantly, she shut her magic off, and walked over to her two latest kills. "Come," she called to Clyde. "They are going to come from the opposite direction next," she explained, as she forced herself to raise her bow once more, and aim it in the direction she had seen the auras approach from.

The girl began to inch the bowstring back, almost mechanically. She hardly felt now. Hardly saw a thing, for she was so intent on her task of destruction. Ending the life of those which intended to end her own, before they could get around to it. Aello took a deep breath in through the nose, and out through the mouth as she closed her left eye and waited another few seconds before two yukman came for them.

They appeared to be twins. Males, with dark blue skin, and several lines of dark stone, shimmering coals, running down the length of their foreheads, to the back of their necks. The stones gave the same impression as thick, greasy hair- something to be admired from afar, and never touched. Aello watched as the stones seemed to take on a golden edge as the monsters crept into the light, as she moved her bow over them, and let go of the string, releasing an arrow towards the monster on the right. "Now!" Aello shouted.

Instantly, Aello turned her bow on its side, and reached for the other two arrows, lacing them swiftly onto the string, and using the entirety of her right hand to keep them in place as she loaded them. The tips clicked together as she struggled to pull the string back. As the first arrow struck the first yukman, halting him for a second, while the other brother kept on running for Aello and Clyde. There is no time to aim, Aello's mind screamed, just shoot, it shouted, as Aello let go of the string and hollered "now!" The arrows shot forth, but did not fly as far as her arrows would normally. One struck the second yukman in the foot, the other, rested against a line of trees to her left.

Aello lowered her bow as the two yukman continued to come at them. Her eyes grew wide as she reached for her dagger. "You know what Clyde? We're going to abandon this plan, there is simply no time for this," she insisted, as her right hand curled around the hilt, and she pulled her dagger from concealment. By that time, the yukman were no more than a pace or two away. Pulling their arms back by their sides, balling their hands into fists. One had his hiked up by the side of his head, and was beginning to extend it towards Aello. At the last possible second, Aello darted to the left, and away from the yukman. She moved around him, and headed closest to the portion of the clearing where they had first shown themselves.

"There are more coming from this direction," Aello shouted, as she watched the yukman she had dodged strike at thin air, and angrily retract his hand. Bringing it closer to his form. She knew it was only a matter of time before he turned, and tried to strike her once more. Unless, of course, Clyde got to him first.

OOCWhat? Aello can try to be badass, right?

P.S. So, Aello injures the yukman on the right with one arrow, to the arm. The other one, she hits in the right foot. The one on the left is the one that missed Aello, Clyde then, will probably have to deal with the one on the right.

Now is the time to dodge and whip out the mighty sling shot, or staff. You did have one of those, didn't you?

by **Clyde Sullins** on December 20th, 2011, 4:54 am

The first arrow shot was not activated, Aello not even bothering to say to ignite it. Which more or less meant that the res on it had been wasted, since he had already put the res on it. Well he would not be getting it back know, though she might as well have had him ignite it, since it would not have cost any more djed to do so.

Clyde stood there for a moment, but noticed Aello was pausing, so looked up for a bit, still keeping the remaining three arrows under control. He quickly followed behind her, barely remembering to snatch up his staff, after seeing her run off, not even hearing he say to follow... Maybe he should get his hearing checked... But he did not have the best hearing, and he was pretty focused on other things...

Clyde arrived at the new spot with Aello, a cold trickle of sweat running down the back of his neck, having already started to soak his shirt... He felt another bit of his djed being shot off, as Aello shouted out for him to light it... With a small twitch of his hand, the fire was started, and the arrow was aflame striking the yukman.

Then Aello reached for the last two arrows prepared, setting both of them in her bow. She held it for a few seconds, before firing both, indicating again for Clyde to light them, which he did with another lazy wave of his hand. Both blazed for a bit, but only one hit its mark, lancing into a yukmans foot. The other missed entirely, hitting a tree, spreading the fire, which would soon end in the tree ablaze.

Once more Aello was changing plans, and wanted to fight another way... All Clyde could wonder was... How many more of these petching things were there left to fight?

Clyde looked up to see one approaching him, and another approaching Aello. His had an arrow through its arm, and that limb did not seem to be working to well. Clyde still had a small bit of his ball of res, at least enough for another attack. He had been clinging to that res for the duration of the fight, and so had not had to exude any more res, meaning he had not used up any more of his inner djed... So he knew that when he used the last of it, he would have to exude more.... Which was not fun, considering he was getting pretty tired from all of this running and from the good bit he had exuded at the beginning...

As the yukman got close, Clyde worked the last of the res into a ball, readying it to launch it as one last attack. He got it ready, and was just making a move and lighting its outer layer aflame as the yukman arrived. Striking out with his staff, he swiped at the arm that was swinging at him, parrying that one blow. But that was only a moments respite, and he needed to go on the offensive, not just defend.

So dropping his empty hand, he dropped down the flaming ball of res at the nearby yukman, lighting it through to the core as it smashed into the yukmans exposed face, flames splashing over its head, and spreading over its shoulders and back. This one exploded with a good bit of force, knocking the yukman flying, some of the sparks even spalshing back, and some hot bits hit Clydes robe, which he quickly tried to beat out with his gloved empty hand.

While Clyde was busy trying to put himself out, the other yukman would have reached Aello, and the last arrow that had missed and had been aflame... It had struck a tree... Which was also now aflame... There seemed to be a lot of fire around Clyde, or so an outside observer might notice...

by **Aello** on December 22nd, 2011, 4:14 am

Aello turned towards the beast's left. As she moved, she swept her arm upwards, towards the underside of the yukman's arm. The creature however, had shifted out of the way, causing Aello's arm to awkwardly drive upwards, through thin air. The blade seemed to hiss as it struck at nothing, as Aello forced herself to retract her hand as quickly as she could, and take a half step back.

The yukman had raised his arm, and was pushing his fist towards her one more. Aello pulled her head back, but not quickly enough. The beast's fist clipped her chin, causing it to sting, and grow warm. Red.

Aello stumbled a few steps back, before regaining her footing. Her eyes teared, causing her vision to grow glassy. Everything blurred a bit. The flames seemed to dance, as did the yukman's body. The smoke that swirled through the air caused her nostrils to flare.

Finish it quickly, Aello's mind hissed, as she blinked a few times, freeing the water from her eyes. Letting it drizzle down her face as she ran forward towards her opponent, and swept her right arm out to the side. When she had reached striking distance, she allowed the blade to dip, before pushing it upwards, twisting it through the creature's gut. Spilling blood.

Aello could feel its warmth against her pale hands. She could feel it pouring over her as she pushed the blade deeper and the yukman shrieked. As he bat his arms against her sides and curled into himself, before crumbling towards the forest floor.

Aello extracted her bloody blade, and looked around at the scene. Fire. Blood. Bodies. Death. A tribute to Dira it seemed.

"Get your things," Aello called, as she turned to Clyde, and then swept past him. Plucking her arrows from the ground, nearby trees, and dead bodies. Shoving their points into the dirt if they were still aflame. Putting everything out before she returned them all to her quiver.

"We can escape this way," Aello explained with a flick of her chin. "They're coming from over there, and over there," she pointed with her bow, "so we should miss them this way." Aello began to move in the direction she had indicated first. "Unless you want to stay and fight. By yourself, and more than likely die," she added, before darting off through the line of trees. To what she hoped would be safety.

Aello could feel the sweat pouring down her brow. Her aching muscles. Her heart pounding in her chest. This was the only way. There was no chance of her standing and fighting much longer. She simply would have collapsed, if not simply been pummeled to death.

OOCI figured it's about time we wrapped up.

by **Clyde Sullins** on December 27th, 2011, 1:42 am

Clyde finally finished beating the embers out, which had caught flame on his robes, and looked up, remembering they were in the middle of something.

He looked over just in time to see Aello pull her blade from inside of her yukmen. It had gotten to be quite a scene, there was blood and bodies all over the place, several burning or in other states of destruction, along with flames spread out in various places... It was getting pretty gory...

Though it seemed like it was time to end this, and to get out of there, since they were both getting pretty tired, and any longer of a battle would just lead to him overgiving. He had long since used up his reserve of djed that he had learned to set aside inside himself, and was ever getting closer to the cliff that was overgiving, which once gone over was impossible to get back from its backlash.

Clyde nodded, feeling exhausted from using so much energy running around and casting spells, and was eager to get back to the relative safety and warmth of Ravok. He was really coming to appreciate the areas temperate weather, and safety from outside dangers and threats which were so common in the wilds...

So he snatched up his staff, which he had dropped to free up his body for movement in spellcasting, and ran along behind Aello, in truth running on fumes. He trusted that she knew were they needed to go, and which way was safe. He did his best to keep up, but his muscles were starting to lock up, and his entire body was screaming its response to him trying to push it past what it was used to doing....

The only thing pushing him now was a bit of adrenaline, his will to live and survive, and his fear of overgiving, and what he knew he would be forced to do if they met another threat and he was made to fight... That was scarier than anything else the yukmen could do... What he even now felt calling to him from deep inside, a yearning to spew fire, cast spells, destroy any who might threaten him, or face him as a foe... A voice that was ever getting louder, and harder to fight and not give into.... His entire body shook, as he fought giving in, doing so by sheer force of will alone...