The Den Games Network Forum RPG
Page 14
Game Masters:
virtualoctopus, CKW, Wesforce, Nyerguds
(virtualoctopus)
Tank waded through the melee, kicking, shooting, and even headbutting Zombies. He'd grown bored with pumelling the one in his hand quickly, so had decided he'd better find Charlie. With typical Orkish mentality, he was now so fixed on this that he wasn't even thinking about fighting.
His eyes scanned the crowd, and picked out Wirecat and Hurricane. Humies were fighting to get somewhere, it looked like, so that was probably where Charlie was. Over there, near the van.
***
"There!"
Wirecat's yell spun Hurricane around, her mana-spray smashing zombies off their feet.
"He's there! By the van!"
Back to back, in the swirl of the melee, both could see that in the glare of the engines of the VTOL aircraft, Raven's van was reflecting the light. Something was desperately fighting off zombie after zombie next to it, but she couldn't see what.
"Are you sur..." she stopped herself, locking onto him with her own Astal searching.
"Ok. I'll cover you..."
"No... wait..." Wirecat gutted a zombie, and contined. "There's Tank!, and he's almost unstoppable!"
The ork was cruising through zombies, straight towards what was probably Charlie.
"What now?"
"We could provide some support for the others if we could get on the van... but we're too far away... we could probably reach the VTOL there too"
"I could... wait... yeah, use a teleport spell, but it's dangerous, whatever's controlling these things could get a stab at us while we're temporarily all-mana. I don't think it's safe"
"I dunno if we have a choice - we're surrounded here as it is. It's that or fight our way out and get ripped to shreds by the sheer numbers as soon as we start moving."
"Ok. For luck?"
Wirecat didn't catch the meaning, before Hurricane pecked him on the (furry) cheek, and initiated the spell.
***
Charlie hacked wildly, wires dangling from his left arm. The zombies were almost upon him, and he couldn't hold them off much longer, at all. He was bleeding from a dozen wounds, and prepared to die.
I hope the others get out ok... in whatever's up there.Charlie couldn't see the VOTL aircraft, being blinded if he looked up (and away from the fight) at the engines, and then ripped to shreds by the zombies.
"YOU WIN FRAGGERS!" He yelled, swinging the long knife one last time, and reading himself for his doom.
Tank caught the zombie he was swinging at in the darkness, and crushed it in his hands.
---------------------------------------------
(Wesforce)
A huge explosion rocked the conference hall, shaking some of the les rertained delegates of ther Magical Ciuncil.
"Are you sure we're safe here?" Enquired Lonsdale, of MIT&T.
"One moment, sir." Renwu said. He consulted the 3DTV map. He noted the position of their MUNDI conference hall in relation to the disposition of MUNDI Command and other MUNDI forces. None of the prized Panzerfaust or Uber-Panzerfaust were here - This was suppoed to be a low-key meeting, and MUNDI didn't want its corporate masters spying on the proceedings from space - Attention which such a large unit as a Panzerfaust would attract. All they had here were Some Pacifier gunships, Several Oceanhahns, Wheeled APCs (three of them air-defence vehicles), a half-dozen IFVs and a squadron of Panzers on standby.
There were a few dozen assorted drones - IWS Janus crawlers, Aztech Rotodrones - But as these were completely ineffectual against spirits, they had been kept in reserve. They had proved useful against the zombies, however, as long as their controlling Riggers were protected.
Then he checked the known disposition of the 'Enemy' forces, constantly being updated by reports from field units and astral-patrolling Mages - The ones who'd managed to stop their bodies being hijacked while they patrolled, anyway.
His fears were confirmed.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Red Knight is on the move."
"Aye," began the Chief Druid of Avebury. "On his way here, I expect."
***
MUNDI Mage Initiate Grade 2 Niklaus Gontarsky was the first to note the whereabouts of the Red Knight. The huge bestial form was stomping through the ruins of old Geneva with impunity. What little forces MUNDI had had on the ground there had fled
A rotodrone buzzed the Red Knight, peppering it with it's Submachinegun. With a casual sweep of it's gigantic obsidian sword, the little drone was swatted from the sky.
The Red Knight's astral signature, or aura, was positively painful to look at. Gontarsky couldn't help but fall back from it. He also noticed the army of the huge Daemon's followers, lesser daemons. They looked like minature versions of the big guy, swarming about it's feet like pygmies.
Being Daemons, manifest on the physical plane, they had dual sight - The ability to see the physical and the astral at the same time. They spotted Gontarsky at once, and so did some of the ubiquitous 'Hijacker' mini amoebas - But not before Gontarsky put everything he had into a manablast that would have given even a Dragon a headache.
Several Hijackers were disspiated. The Red Knight and his clones seemed to 'ground' the magical energy.
Feeling the drain already, at the edge of consiousness, Gontarsky dimly registered this, and resolvde to tell his superiors.
But later. Now, he was tired.
He flew back to his body, unaware that a dozen Hijackers and mini-knights were following him...
***
The MUNDI defence commander was almost catatonic.
Red Knight... Coming HERE? I've got enough to deal with... Fragging Parker appearing out of nowhere attacking our own men... Our men who got Hijacked... I don't know whether to commit my forces to help Parker or the Special Forces guys. Or maybe I should kill 'em both? But I can't do that AND protect the wizworms from the Daemons?
He'd already put out a coded message to MUNDI HQ. The situation was critical, the Magical Council was under real threat, defence forces all but neutralised.
HQ had responded by detaching Units for reinforcements - The 13th Mechanized Attack brigade - Which included two of the prized Panzerfausts, and the 3rd Battalion of the 9th Air Assault Regiment, in Oceanhahn, Pacifier and Hollowpoint helicopters, and several Aztech Lobo Panzers. Ground-attack aircraft were also en route But would they arrive in time?
And even if they did, could they hope to stand against the horde that was approaching?
"Frag." He said. That wasn't strong enough for how he felt.
"Frag, bollocks Drek shit an' Onions. We're screwed."
He unholstered his sidearm, put the barrel in his mouth, fired.
Only as his consiousness departed did he realise that he'd made an even worse mistake than killing himself.
Seconds later his reanimated body was up and about - Right in the heart of the conference centre.
***
Unaware of the approaching apocalypse, Chance, Ash and Evans were still pinned down. The sniper fire seemed to have stopped, but now their position was coming under machinegun fire. LMG rounds peppered the building behind them, smashing what windows remained, wrecking the parked electrivan, cracking the electric fuel cell. Acid and water mingled on the plascrete.
Chance saw the firers - A team of two, one Ork firer and a Dwarf loader, both prone and in cover. In a moment they would get a fix on the target...
Frag... We need a vehicle. The Motor pool as a good two hundred metres or so away. Why the frag aren't we getting reinforcements?
The sound of rotors was almost directly overhead now. He could feel the downwash spraying dust and grit everwhere.
He heard the shriek of a weapon unlike anything he'd heard before. A moment later, the booming explosion as something went up in a secondary explosion. It was the second air defence vehicle being hit - Chance could tell by the snapping secondary explosions of the SAMs.
***
Roland was hit again, a bullet cracking his ribs through the armour plate. Another bullet. The Ork and Dwarf Machinegun team had switched targets. He was about to get up, when the all-too familiar human form of N'zar appeared again.
"YOU!" He snarled. "Get the sleg out of here!"
"But Dear Roland, we are friends, are we not? We understand each other? Why tussle with mere mortals when our prize is so near, with just horned-ones in our way?"
***
So far so good. Parker thought. His mercs were successfuly tying down the MUNDI special forces men in the car park - The most experienced Daemon fightrs, Pharis had said. And due to Parker's misinformation, no MUNDI forces were moving to help them.
I've taken losses though. Damn that Stephenson... Why did I let Pharis persuade me to take him again?
If you don't like him, Parker, kill him. Why, that sweet Dark Blossom could kill him with her bare hands...
Parker turned to the young woman, crouched patiently next to him. She wore Boots, Black Torso armour, but only kevlar shorts on her legs, leaving them mostly bare for ease of movement.
"I want you to-"
No. I'm not putting her in danger. I'm keeping her with me Screw you, Pharis.
Parker had to shield himelf from the eruption of pain in his head as Pharis frowned.
"I want you to stick with me. We're advancing to the motor pool. Everyone else, get Stephenson!"
His half-dozen survivors nodded in affirmation, breaking cover and charging around the corner of their building.
So, just you and your 'girlfriend', eh Parker?
Parker ignored Pharis again as he and Dark Blossom advanced stealthily. Suddenly the Japanese merc broke and ran forward - They'd reached the motor pool now, and she disappeared silently around the corner of a parked MUNDI 4x4.
***
Four MUNDI soldiers, combat-ready and armoured, were waiting for clearance from HQ to move. Huddled between two parked 8-wheeler trucks, all they knew was that fighting was going on, comrades were dying, and nothing was coming through on the command net.
"What the frag is up with HQ-"
The Sergeant never finished his sentence. A black shape vaulted the top of one of the trucks. Slim, bare legs locked around her neck, Dark Blossom twisting as she fell, snapping the neck like a twig. She cam off the body into a roll between two stunned soldiers, darting to her feet before they could act, thrusting a hand through the belly of one, jumping back, spinning, knocking the rifle from the hand of the other before landing an open-handed punch on the side of his helmet, shattering the plasteel. Concussion put him out instantly.
That left one man. She dropped - Burst of rifle fire going over he head, sweeping his legs from under him as she did so. He fell heavily, and she was upon him in an instant.
Realising the game was up, that he was about to see the end of a distinguished military career to a mere slip of a girl, the soldier breathed
"Do it."
Dark Blossom obliged.
Parker arrived seconds later, struggling to keep up with his half-Dwarf legs.
"Frag... Good work, DB."
He hoped the men sent to deal with Stephenson fared so well...
***
"Alright yuze scum, da fraggers around here sum ware. Use da grenades ta smoke him out." Bellowed the Ork mercenary sergeant, wearing Blue MUNDI amour like the other five in his squad. He chomped the pin away from the smoke grenade - Thermal smoke whch burned graphite particles to block infra-red vision. He lobbed it overarm like a cannonball. It crashed off the broken bricks into where he hoped the newby traitor sniper was supposed to be.
Then he tucked his Daisaka Autoshotgun under his arm, affixed the bulky drum magazine as his comrades also threw smoke grenades, or fired them from the under-barrel launchers of their IWS rifles.
"Demolishun Squad! ADVANCE! StOMP DA HUMIE BLIND BOY!"
---------------------------------------------
(CKW)
Roland stood at his leg.
That shooting at him was making him upset.
"Nīzar, will you give me a second?"
Nīzar, already knowing what he was about to do, agreed to wait. The converstion could be interrupted for a while...
"What the...!?" shouted the ones who were trying to bring down Roland as a HUGE fireball homed towards them.
The last scene they remembered was the heat.
***
All of a sudden, Red Knight stopped. He had felt the use of a powerful kind of magic. A dragon. But not a normal one. A Greater one, at least.
***
"Sleg. Why do I need to take this crazy bitch with me?" Draco said to himself while he was flying back to the Argentinian base of Vladivostok corp.
He had already noticed that Varos was holding his tail, not letting him go on his own.
---------------------------------------------
(virtualoctopus)
Red knight could smell the dragon's astral signiture. In his Daemonic mind, he sensed one of his tormentors.
A dragon. Creator. Punisher. Enemy.
Roaring his challenge, the twenty-foot tall avatar of the daemon turned, and locked it's ethereal vision onto the target. A dragon. In human form.
Pitiful how low they had stooped.
With a sweep of one hand, the colossal avatar swept a swarm of lesser daemons towards the shapeshifter, and ordered the rest of his horde on to MUNDI HQ.
---------------------------------------------
(LeFire)
"Go!" Ash yelled as soon as the machine-gun fire lifted, either taken out by a fireball (possibly launched by one of the WESforce mages, she thought) or simply going after easier prey. She scanned the sky, searching for the source of the helicopter sound she had heard earlier... but it was on the other side of the now-burning mall, presumably occupied with the air-defence vehicles.
Chance and Ash exploded from their position, Evans and Johan joining them as they raced out of the carpark and headed for the motor pool. Along the way, Wangfei and Winston caught up with them, having extracted themselves from the mall and sprinted across the carpark, moving easily despite the weight of their black (as opposed to standard-issue blue for normal grunts) Special Forces armour.
"Chance! There's a turncoat sniper on their team, a pretty solid chap with his rifle. We've got to help him out." Winston called out as the six soldiers entered the motor pool. The rigger Johan spotted an ideal vehicle and gave a grunt of delight, leading the others over.
"You've got to be joking." Wangfei winced as they surrounded the Panzer. Evans knocked politely on the hatch cover, Johan beside him and flexing big hands. There was a "Wait up!" reply from inside and the sound of the hatch opening...
Two thwacks later, a couple of unconscious crewmen were tucked away under a table strewn with tools courtesy of Evans and Johan... Both luckless Panzer crewmen really no match for the two Special Forces personnel, let alone the four others backing them up.
Just then, another Panzercrewman walked in on their little party, mouth agape. Everyone froze... then Winston coughed and tipped his head meaningfully towards the two unconscious crewmen.
Twenty seconds later, the six of them had entered the Panzer, four at the crew stations, and two in the rear infantry compartment. Behind them, they left two unconscious, and one voluntarily tied-up-and-gagged Panzercrewmen.
As Winston said to Evans... "Subtlety, my dear chappie."
But there wasn't anything subtle in the way Johan was powering the Panzer towards the turncoat sniper's last position.
"I warned you to stay off the fragging caffeine, you frigging Kraut!" Evans yelled as he bumped his helmeted head on the hatch cover, Johan grinding yet another parked vehicle to dust by accident. "Ow! Careful, Fei!"
Wangfei didn't pause from her work in bandaging Evan's back. "Shut up and be nice, or I'll stick my scalpel where the sun don't shine, Evans."
Evans made a mock look of despair as he turned to Winston.
"Told you our medic's a tyrant. Why? I don't think she even took the Hippo Oath!"
"Its Hippocratic Oath, you ignoramus."
"Whatever!"
On the other side of the compound, a SAM roared aloft... somewhere near where the strange helicopter had disappeared to.
---------------------------------------------
(Wesforce)
No sooner had Crystal snapped up her explosives and trusty IWS submachinegun, the buzzer rang from downstairs.
Crystal glanced at the poor old woman comatose on the couch, not wanting to leave her. She went to her telecom console and picked up the view from the lobby cameras.
Cylinder Head, Illidia and the Slayer stiood downstairs at the elevators, examining the trashed lobby of her apartmant building.
"Come up." She told the microphone, pressing the call button to send an elevator - The only working one - down to them.
At precisely that moment, there was a knock on the blank plasteel door to her apartment.
Two lots of visitors?
Crystal moved closer to the door, SMG cocked and ready, tucked underarm.
This has GOT to be some kind of fragging trick. Those zombies? Cops? Why didn't I install that sentry-gun system and camera outside my door?
A flapping motion caught her eye - It was the sheet of temporary fabriglas she'd used to cover the window Zizz had made - Wonder where he is now - When he'd dropped in that time. It was flapping in the wind.
Hang on, I'd left that secured -
A heavy figure dropped from the ceiling behind her. But she was no half-wit - She jumped and rolled forward as a vicious swipe went just over her head. She turned and was about to pepper the fragger with flechette ammo, when she realised she would chew the old woman on the couch behind the intruder to pieces.
The intruder - It was The Dragon. Or at least how he'd look with Vicious retracting forearm cyber-blades, Two cyberarms, Cyberlegs, Cybereyes and at least half his torso fixed with cermaic plates. He had been extensively cybered, that much would have been as evident from his fast, jerky wired-reflexes movements on their own. The cyber-monster also seemed to have battle damage. Dents, flesh burns and score-marks criss-crossed his bare chest.
***
The Cyber BWG had come straight here after his tussle with the Queen and her brother. Getting up onto the frayed London weather-domes was easy and simple - No-one was patrolling the support structures in circumstances like this, and his Spiked Cyberlimbs gave him easy purchase to climb the hundreds of feet tall support structures.
Trekking over the treacherous, rigid but slowly dissolving domes had taken quite a while, but he was in no hurry. He had a fix on the target vehicle on the tracking receiver in his head, and it seemed to be parked.
As luck would have it, the target had actually gone into one of the support structures.
It was not the target he was looking for, but it was a target nonetheless. The Blue-haired bitch who'd tried to kill him... Back when he'd lived. He smiled, watched with his extreme magnification and thermographic eyes the elevator and what level it stopped at, and what flat the target went into.
Within seconds he'd crawl-sprinted over and started shimmying down the building to the unguarded window of her flat.
He didn't spot the six-wheeled APC swerve to a halt just outside.
***
Crystal didn't think it even possible that someone with so much cyberware could even live, let alone retain their sanity and humanity. That he had neither of the latter two was soon proven:
"Well now, my young would be murderer. I have two lessons to teach you. 1) NEVER FRAG WITH AZTECHNOLOGY! and 2) Always lock your windows."
"Yeah, well-"
Crystal's witty repartee was cut short as the Cyber-BWG flickde out a CyberArm - A telescoping Cyberarm and punched her off her feet, slamming her against the far wall. Her tail was caught painfully behind her again.
"Lesson 3." Continued the monster. "Respect the dead, and your elders. For I am both."
Obviously the psycho wanted Crystal to realise something. To make her know who was about to kill her, to gloat in the moment of triumph.
I'll be fragged if I give HIM that triumph.
"Look, ball-brain, I haven't got time for your cyber-PMS. Go frag with someone who cares."
"Lesson 4, bitch. PAIN!"
The Energised Cyber-Psycho charged, legs pistoning, eyes glowing red, claws snipping. The way he was going, he was going to go through the wall Crystal was up against. The outside wall.
Crystal fired her SMG on full-auto.
***
"Hello? Miss Crystal? HELLO!!!" Yelled Raven's dad. No answer. But someone was definitely in the flat. They could hear talking.
He turned to his wife, middle-aged like him.
"I knew this was a bad idea Dammit! But NOO! You had to go to London - City of the Dead, didn't you? You had to enter this piss-soaked building, go up that dodgy unsecure elevator..."
"Quit whining." His wife snapped. "Don't you care what trash our dear Roland is associtating with?"
Just then the elevator opened behind them and a mtley crew of three stepped out - One Elven woman - By far the only presentable one of the bunch, one scruffy young man with long silver hair and a big jacket and one hulking monster in an ornate mask...
---------------------------------------------
(CKW)
"Urgh.... Crystal..." Slayer muttered something. He actually got up. But he felt again to the ground. Obviously, he had seen something suspicious...but he was too drained to do anything.
"Great, now a drunk threesome." The woman of the couple ranted out. Illidia felt terribly insulted.
"Listen up, madam. This man needs help. He is just one step before the grave. So I would really thank you that you get out the way and donīt mock us!!!"
Cylinder nodded, as he helped Illidia dragging Slayer.
The five persons heard the scream, and the gun firing.
As if an untold source of energy, Slayer got up, and with a run, he slammed onto the door. He got knocked back, and fell off.
"Darn... If I werenīt so drained..." But Crystal needed his help.
With a quick decision, Illidia pulled out the Blazer, and fired in the lock. Nothing happened, besides the confused and scared couple running away down the stairs, begging for help.
Slayer got up once again. And this time he would use his full strenght. He rammed again the door.
The door virtually flew away with the crash. But Slayer tripped off. And he barely could get up.
***
Crystal could barely believe it. The SMG bended like plastic in the hands of the monster. The same hands they were seizing her neck. He was about to snap her neck like a rabbit. She yelled.
And then, the door flew away.
A voice muttered. "Crystal".
Slayer. The mysterious guy. But its voice seemed funny. The voice jammer was running out of batteries...
Just as the BWG looked at that direction, both Illidia and Cylinder Head were flanking Slayer.
"Target Switched. Masked guy will now be chopped like salami". Thought the BWG.
---------------------------------------------
(Wesforce)
The SAM had come from a man-portable launcher. With his unnatural piloting skills, the creature once known as Shibata veered away. This SAM wasn't as effective as the MIRV ones that had been launched from the SAM APCs, being a generation in technolgy behind, but could still do damage.
It exploded metres away, either from the former Kamov's ECM pods or aging propellant. Supersonic tungsten shrapnel knocked a hole though the Man-copter's fuselage. Blood fountained down from the hit. The helicopter had taken a 'flesh wound'.
He roared in rage, and pain, firing a salvo of his missiles at where he'd thought the attack had come from. A man in khaki, with long hair and a headband desperately tried to avoid the explosices, diving under a smouldering wrecked armoured vehicle.
Then Shibata was drawn the the huge amount of vector thriust downwash being put out by a Panzer powering up.
Panzers... A 'chopper's worst enemy. I LOVE IT!!!
He whirled in the air, raking his beam-gun over the motor pool area, unleashing the last of his unguided rockets. 8 wheel Trucks and 4x4s wre thron into the air, mushrooming into fuel explosions. At least two 'choppers were hit on the ground. The armour of APCs and Panzers melted and ran as the beam-gun hit them. Men were thrown into the air in pieces, or vaporized...
KILL KILL KILL!!! Screamed the wretched creature, enjoying the bright fireballs of the vehicles.
***
"GET US THE FRAG OUT OF HERE!"
Johan had just powered up the Vector-Thrust Low altittude armoured vehicle up when the outside world had become an inferno of mushrooming fuel explosions, shrapnel and black beams of death, which made armour melt and turned the ground to glass.
Rising from the ground through the sheer brute force of it's engines' downwash, the Panzer was akin to a flying brick. Albeit a brick armed with a light railgun in the turret, 23mm coaxial cannon, AAMs and a GPMG or two.
It had barely taken off when a horribly overpowered rocket blast tossed it spinning out of control, engines flaring, into the tool shed.
***
Get out of here Parker. NOW!
"Whuh?" Parker had just spotted a group of the black-armoured MUNDI special forces he and Dark Blossom were homing in on when the warning from Pharis hit him like a Thunderbolt.
Then he saw it. It. The daemon chopper, like the devil's own airfix kit. Part flesh, part metal. Spitting death.
"NOOOOO!!" He screamed. He ran. He turned, looked for Dark Blossom. She'd gone on ahead, out of sight. He returned, ran for the cover of the tool shed -
Just as the whole motor pool was engulfed in fire and Dark energy.
***
"Heh heh heh, what a bully show, eh what?" N'zar chuckled, watching the distant figures dancing, crumbling as they were sycthed down by shrapnle, blown through the air.
"I never get tired watching these creatures die. Fascinating." He turned, looking back at Roland.
"Do you agree?"
His immortal enemy replied mentally.
I would rather we observe the tender mercies of that approaching tide of Red Daemonitude, my dear Mad Monk.
N'zar turned, spotted the host, turned back to Roland.
"Well, time to stretch the old bones again, then."
He began his change...
***
At the MUNDI Conference centre, the troops on guard had had pitifully little time to form an effective defence. If any kind of defence mundanes could put up against Daemons was effective anyway.
Men stationed on all three above ground floors began firing the chatter of assault rifles and Light Machineguns filling the air. Aimed fire converged on the charging horde to depressingly little effect.
Daemons, like spirits, took damage not from physical attacks - even on the physical plane. Instead, their forms were disrupted by the emotion, anger and will of those behind those weapons. In any case, firearms weren't good 'conductor's for this willpower - It is the bullet that is the true weapon after all, not the machine that launches them. For that reason, blades and melee weapons did more damage to them than firearms, while explosives did next to nothing, apart from throw them around a bit.
As the MUNDI men saw what little effect they were having, they lost heart, their wills weakened - meaning they did even less damage. Some even began to fall back. The red tide grew closer. Closer to washing over mankind's best hope once and for all...
But there were other forces supplementing the MUNDI men. Sioux Wildcats with their focussed, practiced battle-rage, the Shamans who had travelled so far, with their Manitou allies.
Manabolts and Fireballs began hammering into the lesser daemons, while a fierce magical wind sprang up to blow against them, slowing them. Daemons started to fade and be torn apart by the strong-willed, battle-hardened Wildcats.
The battle was far from one-sided.
---------------------------------------------
(CKW)
"I canīt believe we are fighting in the same side." replied Roszondas, as soon as the two finished the transformation.
They were wearing its combat gear. Mithril Chestplates, and swords. Roszondas one was a broad sword, while Nīzarīs one was two handed.
"Do not be mistaken, brother. We are fighting a common evil"
He laughed. Diabolically. The swarn was approaching. They had been discovered, so their disguises werenīt of use anymore.
"Well, they are not fighting properly, Mad Monk. As far as I can see, if that Red Dumb continues to toss out his daemons like this, it is a mere walk.The only wise thing he could do is to face us personally... and I doubt he has got many chances..."
"I canīt agree more, Sword Lady" taunted Nīzar.
***
"What the ...?" Cylinder head, as the others looked really surprised. Dragon was supposed to be dead. But he was there. Attempting to make a splatter festival with all of them. Illidia and Slayer looked even more confused. They knew something that confused the two even more.
"Well, if it is the fragger who got his brains fried at Aztech..."
The BWG ranted out, taunting Cylinder head.
Crystal wondered why should know that. But then remembered. Dragon did know that.
---------------------------------------------
(virtualoctopus)
Red Knight watched his cohorts ripped to smithereens by the two dragons. Curse them. They failed in their duty, and were not worthy of rememberance.
The dragons wanted to play with fire, it seemed. He'd give them a tidal wave of it.
RedKnight roared again, four answering calls coming back to him. The five were ready, each one a Greater Daemon, and each with a multitude at their back. By destroying his lesser cohorts, the Dragons had signed for their own death.
***
N'zar began to make another joke, but the sky darkened, forcing him to look up.
Daemons. With wings. Tens of thousands of them.
The ground rumbled, as another swarm moved in from the collosal figure to the left.
And from the right.
They were surrounded.
"It appears.." whispered N'zar.. "that the Red Knight is not only a champion - he is their leader"
***
Red Knight watched, as the skeletal form of the Pariah materialised next to him. Dressed in shreds of human-skin, and flicking in and out of reality, the Pariah made up for size in sheer horror and manuaverability.
"Go. Destroy them both. They have dared to defy me"
"Yesssss...... I obeyyy..."
The Pariah clicked it's atom-sharp talons in salute, and flickered away. It would wait, patiently until the final moment, and then strike.
---------------------------------------------
(Wesforce)
With his Frontal vision being obscured by billowing clouds of smoke, Deadeye had to keep his head down. Bullets started peppering the cover he was behind.
As he was aiming, trying to see through the thermal smoke, he got distracted by The roaring of heavy jet engines from the direction of the motor pool - Some kind of craft taking off.
The sound was swallowed up by the Scream of rockets - Explosions blossomed out throughout the entire motor pool area.
More explosions burst near to Deadeye. grenades -
One landed just to the side of him, as a huge Ork charged through the smoke with an Autoshotgun, screaming
"RAAAAARRRGHHHHH!!!!!"
---------------------------------------------
(BlueThunder)
Jester heard the commotion from afar and smiled. The smell of dragon sweat was in the air, and the stench of fear was ripe in it. He master was drawing in for the kill!
Jester put another arrow in a MUNDI officer, the Human frantically tried to pull it out, but the harder he pulled the further it went in. Jester laughed an insane laugh as the human slowly died, death to them all!
Jester leaped away from the horde of Daemons heading towards the MUNDI building, he wanted to see the dragons bleed, he wanted to taste that blood, he wanted to rip the organs from the body of a dragon and claim victory for the Red Knight.
He leapt past his brother daemons, crushing any mortals that got in his path, this was going to be an enjoyable show.
---------------------------------------------
(Nyerguds)
"One more time! We have to keep fending them off!"
The horse shaman was exhausted. His eyes looked tired, but a raging fire burned within them. Once again the maelstrom magic of the Mana Burn spell proved to be very effective against the Daemons.
"Right. We're ready."
The manitou's channeled their energy to their shaman hosts, who channeled it through to the Horse Shaman.
A huge blast shot in the direction of the Daemons; weakening them and destroying the minor spirits that flew around them as a living shield by turning their own mana against their physical forms.
Look there... to your left.
"Uh?" Curim looked, and saw something slip away. A shadow... on the physical plane as well as on the astral.
No way... Is that what I think it is? Curim asked his ally spirit.
One of the Iotui... the scout. Let's hope they don't interfere.
I don't think they have any reason to...
True.
"Curim! Pay attention!" It was the Mantis shaman.
"What? Frag!"
One of the bigger lesser daemons approached them. A creature that seemed to be made of nothing but horns, sticking out of a bloody ball of flesh.
Oh frag... I got distracted. Sorry about that.
"It's OK." Curim whispered. "Just help me out here..."
He formed a claw with his hand and swung it in the direction of the Daemon. He could almost see the astral shape of the huge Grizzly Bear claw that hit the daemon, six meters away from where Curim was standing.
Four deep scars appeared in the lesser daemon's body, crushing the horns and spikes and ripping right through the red ball of flesh. The Daemon fell, and didn't get up.
Phew. Glad my old tricks still work.
A manabolt finished off the weakened spirit that tried to flee the destroyed body.
---------------------------------------------
(CKW)
"Hell this is surely a lot of fun..." Nīzar said. Even they were surrounded, they paid attention. Lesser Daemons were a minor threat, but the ratio was another thing to ponder. Being heavily outnumbered, the daemons could attemp to outmaneuver the dragons with their numbers.
"What do you suggest, Lady?" taunted Nīzar.
"Charge against them. At full speed."
Nīzar got the point of Roszondas. They could use their mithril swords as spears to pierce through the daemon waves. Once they reached their backs, they could run even deeper in the heart of Geneva. Till they reached the rift. Red Knight still thought they were helping the humans.
"Incoming. Prepare yourself. Mad Monk."
Daemons came closer.
Even Closer.
Both could sense their evil auras.
"Now!"
A roar of a dragon shrunk the hearts of everyone.
Just as the daemons got past the last obstacle, two dragons flew close, and passed away like a blaze.
"Letīs make them taste a little of Blitz War!" Roszondas yelled, charging at the daemons. Unexpectedly.
Daemons had no time to react. Just in a few seconds, the two humongous beasts had passed the formation like if they werenīt there. Few daemons flew up, others were chopped into pieces. The most lucky ones got out of the way and retaliated.
Projectiles of all sorts flew up to the dragons, but the speed of the attack did not allowed accuracy. Only a few lesser wounds that were not even a danger were the most the daemons could do to the beasts.
The formation adquired a chaotic form. They were repositioning. Now the number of them was a disadvantage. Both dragons reanudated their run. Their destination: the very heart of the problem. Inside the rift.
Roszondas seemed to limp. Damn. An arrow actually hitted the leg. He tried to remove it, but he then realised. A cursed arrow.
He groaned and used a magic field to pull it off. He could not use his bare hands- The arrow would get even deeper. He looked at the small artifact and then he tossed into the ground while going on.
***
"Damn Royals..." Red Knight finally realised. He had underestimated the dragons. Those were royals. And they werenīt there to help the humans. They were here for something else.
***
"Dragon... What the hell are you doing? We trusted you... And... how did you survive?" Cylinder seemed puzzled. So did the others.
Finally Slayer got up.
The cybermonster ranted out: "The ghosts of the past have claimed the blood of all of you!"
And then he tossed Crystal against the young punk, knocking them to the ground.
Slayer seemed even more paralized. It was the limit he had reached. He had to undo all the work.
The mask plunged down with a hard sound.
Crystal, Cylinder and the BWG opened their eyes wide.
"DO not steal my phrases! I AM THE REAL DRAGON!!!! And you, monster of hell, damn stuntie zombie, had made my new life impossible. Because if you are alive, I canīt live in peace.
Slayer...Dragon... Slayer WAS Dragon. He had not died. He had been lying. Illidia faded her head. She had known it. Since she saw his face back in the alley. But now she knew why he did that. She needed to protect his friends from his enemies...
But now the dice was tossed.
"Ah... Seems you recognize me... Fragger. You have no IDEA of what I will enjoy with you and your whore... Like last time."
Last Time? What? Cylinder did not understand anything. Zwergmann... the Cyber Monster... How? And Dragon... passing out as mage... He looked at Crystal. A tail? Crystal smiled.
"I am really confused, just like you..." she sneered.
Illidia was furious.
She charged against Zwergmann.
And she got wiped off like a doll.
She leaned in a wall, unconscious. With several grave injuries.
"NOOOOOOO!!!!" Both Cylinder head and Dragon chored.
But Dragon dropped his guard off.
A quick leg kicked his waist. Dragon gasped blood. And fell off.
Cylinder Head had made it. He had Illidia in his hands.
"Why!?" He screamed, with tears in his eyes.
Zwergmann blinked. He was enjoying soo much...
"Now, Blue Bitch. You are the next..."
Crystal had nothing to defend herself.
But then, Dragon stirred.
He got up again. He had suffered from really hard beats. More than once. He was almost dead.
He had entered a berserk state.
Zwergmann was caught by the back.
Dragon kicked his head so hard, that the wall got splattered with the blood of his nose...
"Nice move... But I am not the same... I have more talents to show to you-"
He tried to punch dragon. But his fist got stopped.
"YOU."
Dragon seemed a zombie. Eyes were blank
"ARE."
Zwergman tried to pull the arm off. He could not understand.
Why the fragger was stronger than him. Zwergmann had the same build, and cyberware. Why he could not destroy him?
"DEAD!!!!"
And the cyber zombie flew away, and rammed in a wall.
He struggled to get out. Dragon followed him. Like a zombie.
---------------------------------------------
(BlueThunder)
Jester smiled, his arrow was directly on target. He reloaded his bow, he was going for the other. The bow levelled at the charging dragon, he carefully aimed, he was going to the chest on this one! He pulled the bow string back, concentration taking over his usual madness, then with a twang it flew straight into the stomach of the dragon. A little off target, but it would do.
He laughed maniacally as one of his daemon brothers ripped at the wounds, he was soon squashed but he was brave. As the arrows sunk deeper and deeper he reloaded, these dragon scum will not have his master! Another twang of his bow saw another arrow in beast with the injured leg, this time in his foot. The beast stumbled, Jesters Daemonic brothers swarming him. Soon thrown off, but the dragon was weakening.
A look of glee was in Jesters eyes as he bounced off to his master, his work was done!
---------------------------------------------
(Wesforce)
The Cyber-BWG let Crystal fall to the ground, his tactical sub-processor identifying each of the targets, analysing their threat potential.
He locked onto the BWG he knew all too well, flicked out his telescoping blade-tipped arm. The thunderous piston calculated Dragon's course of action before he made it - Shifted to a new position just as Slayer jumped to dodge. It speared him though the stomach across the room.
Slayer let out a choking gurgle. Blood fountained from his throat. He dropped to the floor.
The telescoping arm flicked back.
Illidia gasped.
"First blood to me, I think." Smiled the Cyber-BWG.
Illidia and Cy whipped out their pistols - Blazer and Browning Ultra-Power respectively - Sending Raven's parents scurrying for cover down the corridor. The Cyber BWG used his telecoping arm again to simply close the flat's door on them. Heavy pistol rounds thudded through the door, deforming the plasteel, but it was blocked by the BWGs weight.
Crystal and Slayer were trapped in the room with the Cyber-Monster.
Slayer struggled to his feet, spitting blood. The flow from his wound was already coagulating, thanks to the enhanced platelet factories in his blood, and slowed.
"Heh. That is but pin-scratch, Dwarf."
Crystal found it odd that he called his near-clone a Dwarf, but she looked at the twisted wreck of her beloved SMG on the floor.
Well I was never a good shot anyway, but I LIKED THAT FRAGGING GUN! This guy's gonna DIE!
She flicked out two grenades from her bag, ripped the pins out with her teeth and lobbed them at the Cyber BWG one after the other, left hand then right. The first was a concussion grenade - Landed at the feet of the Cyber BWG, exploding with a deafening roar, shattering the surviving window in the flat and the 3DTV blowing him back across the room. The second was a multi-flash grenade. Crystal ran for cover as the sequenced flashes stunned the Cyber monster. He staggered to his feet, back to the fabric-covered window...
"Now Slayer!" She screamed, not hearing herself even. Some blood was coming from her ears.
---------------------------------------------
(virtualoctopus)
The Pariah watched the line break, and the dragons crash through from lifeless eyes. It's skeltal form was perched atop a small building, oblivious to anyone but itself.
The dragons had - miraculously - broken the line. Maybe Red Knight had underestimated them.
Never fear. They would underestimate him too.
Unlike Red Knight, Pariah was not blinded by rage. Stealthy and unseen, the Pariah simply eminated evil. The moss on the roof where he sat had shrivelled away from his touch, and even the air surrounded him was a few degrees colder than the rest.
He watched Jester - another of the five - sink arrows over and over again into one of the dragons. It stumbled, but a flap of it's wings kept it upright, as the daemon horde ripped at it's flanks.
Now was the time.
Pariah dissapeared from the roof, as the running battle between dragon and daemon continued.
Twenty seconds later, he materialised in the middle of the horde. Both dragons were coming towards him at a stumbling run, swinging swords left and right, while daemons left at their sides, thousands of tiny creatures biting, scratching, and ripping Dragon flesh.
The lead dragon was almost upon him. The tide of Daemonkind assailing them ebbed and flowed around Pariah, but he stood stock still, hunched over, waiting.
He was in the shadow of the dragon now.
In a blur of motion, Pariah lept for N'zar's throat. The molecular thin blades attatched to his arms in the manner of a praying mantis flicked upwards, straight for the neck. N'zar recoiled, bringing up his Mithril sword too slow to block.
Pariah's scythelike claws cut through his arm at the wrist, hot dragon-blood spraying from the severed arteries, splashing into the leaping daemon and dragon alike. N'zar cried out in pain, and thrashed his neck, Pariah sailing past, just too wide. Thousands of leech-daemons burst into a frenzy at the smell of blood, hurling themselves at N'zar.
Pariah landed - as always - on his feet, and prepared in a split-second for another pass. He would kill it now.
Behind him, Rozondas, almost collapsing from daemon-infested arrows in his legs, beat his wings, and took off. Ripping daemons fell in droves from his twisting body, but more would take their place, as Siren and her cohorts descended from the sky.
N'zar, although almost blinded by pain, caught the message as the massive form of Rozondas sailed over him. N'zar's wings unfolded, crushing daemons beneath their weight, and bore the injured dragon upwards, into the swarm above.
Pariah watched. Siren would finish them now.
***
Far above, Juthas watched. Tyadoron's blue mate had been watching the battle below now, unable to identify, even with powerful dragon vision, what was going on.
The things, which he was reliably informed were Daemons, had been throwing themselves kamikaze at two figures - giants or golems, but the look of it.
But as they took off, Rozondas had recognised that silhouette. Royals. In full battle armour.
They weren't going to get out alive. Swarms of flying daemons ripped at their flanks, as a huge harpy-like thing, strangely reminiscent of an angel from catholic mythology, but hidously dark and sinister, directed their attacks with lightning prescision.
Stretching out his astral vision, he caught the identity of one of the dragons - Lord King Rozondas, Prince of the Dragons. The other was unknown - certainly no-one he had met before.
What in the brood mother's name was Rozondas doing here? It was practically suicide.
Rozondas was trailing behind the other, both obviously badly injured, but the other seeming more desperately fighting it's way through.
Juthas knew his duty to the prince, even if it was one most dragons would not do.
Whispering the final rites of dragonkind on his scaly lips, Juthas swooped down, hind leg talons exended, and wings swept back, in the manner of a falcon. He hurtled downwards at a speed comparable to a high-energy grav-car on full throttle towards the swarm.
***
Siren screeched again, sending more waves of flying daemons into the wounded dragons. They would die now, die in her domain, like fat, weak pigeons to a hawk.
The greater daemon hurled her followers foreward, uncaring about their fate, only interested in the destruction of her fellows. So conecentrated was she, that she did not notice Juthas until it was too late.
The greater blue dragon barreled into her, Claws closing around her torso, and carrying her down with it. She screamed, and swung a terrible claw, ripping one of the dragons wings of in a flurry of muscles, bone and blood. The dragons screeched in pain, but the claws closed harder, the descent unabated.
Above her, the swarm faltered, unaware of the next descision, their leader hurtling down below them. Desperately, Siren struck out again, tearing a huge gash up the dragon's net, and opening it's jugular, red-liquid gushing out around them.
She send out one final telepathic command, as daemon and dragon smashed into the ground together, at hundreds of miles an hour. The swarm lept after the greviously wounded N'zar and Rozondas at this command, but it was too late - Juthas selling his life so dearly for the Daemon queen had allowed both Royal Dragons to their escape.
Juthas's spirit screamed in agony, the daemon-wounds from the Siren's poisened claws denying him a peaceful afterlife, it's ethereal poison still cursing through invisible veins.
---------------------------------------------
(virtualoctopus)
"Take that you bastards!"
Sarah hurled a spray of water at the approaching zombies, while
Tank picked up Charlie under one arm. Wirecat was on the floor with tank now, having leapt off the van, and was eviscerating zombies with his claws.
Mary and Dorodo were screaming something from the doorstep, one of the crew of the VTOL with them, another gobbo, it looked like, was was spraying the zombies infront of him with a short-ranged flamethrower.
This was chaos. Total chaos.
And I don't want whoever's in that aircraft nosing in our business.
Hurricane grabbed a vial from her satchel-like bag, and opened it up.
This stuff was expensive. She only had one of these.
Hurricane tipped the mana-restorer down her throat quickly, swallowing it on one gulp. With this, she could cast the spell she had used to escape from Delori's palace, and hopefully let them escape in the van, without the VTOL interfearing again.
Sarah bubbled with magical energy, and began the incantation.
<- Page Thirteen - Page Fifteen ->
RPG: Index page
Den Games Network Forum