Advertise/Affiliate Other Forum Main Page The World Before You Play

Hell Frozen Over (ValamLym)

Started by Bunbun, September 24, 2016, 03:49:01 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Bunbun

Axia let Nymiria go about her business- whatever it was- and stared down at her bloodied claw, contemplating whether what she'd just done was the right thing or not. If it weren't for the fact that the sinner was going to die regardless, the dragoness couldn't help thinking that she would have let him go. In that case, though, Axia could have very well found herself dead instead, if Nymiria was telling the truth. Besides, the sinner obviously had evil intentions, even if he tried to hide them in order to protect himself. If she couldn't even bring herself to kill someone who who was undeniably evil, then how would she ever be able that choice when the answer was less obvious?

Trying to force the feelings of doubtfulness into the deepest recesses of her mind, Axia began to regain her usual vigour. She figured that she would have to get stronger- both physically and mentally- if she wanted to keep going on adventures like this. If that meant that she would have to punish evildoers, whatever that punishment may be, then that's just what she would have to do. With a surge of determination, Axia snapped back to reality and went to go join Nymiria.

If the demon's words contained any sarcasm, it was lost on Axia. The dragoness tended to take whatever people said at face value, and she did so here as well.

"Well, maybe I should try it by myself. If the other guys are anything like these guys were, then they probably wouldn't stand a chance against both of us."

Her tone was more serious than it had been previously, showing that the dragon's goals were starting to expand beyond just trying to learn and have fun. She'd committed herself to getting to the bottom of the situation, and she was willing to take the chance to do so now that it had been offered to her.

ValamLym

Nymiria listened quietly to the dragon as the continued their path through the snow. It wouldn't be long for them to arrive on the final group and then she could finally go home, perhaps sleep for a few weeks. She snickered, turning her attention back to the situation at hand. ''I was created to destroy them, so no, they wouldn't.'' she spoke without the slightest hint of arrogance ''I do however believe it would be an excellent experience for one like yourself.'' she continued her path with a sly smirk on her face. Clearly she had hoped this would have been the dragon's answer.

Eventually, several hours of constant walking later, they arrived on yet another camp. This one much more refined then the previous, occult drawings all over the place, a dome of infernal magic protection them from the snow. She squinted her eyes, picking out several figures, more than three even. ''as I feared, they are grouping here. Its a group of ten, still think you're up to it?'' she turned to the dragon, no sign of emotion on her face as she did.

''It will be much harder so there's no shame in backing out now.'' Her words were almost directed at her pride, although her facial expression showed no signs whether it was intentional or not. Meanwhile, her hounds set out to map the camp, find the exact position of the sinner's.

Bunbun

Axia nodded in compliance with Nymiria's first words, which seemed to approve of her decision. As she suspected, the fight would be pretty one-sided if the demon were to participate. In fact, it wouldn't really be a 'fight' at all; it would be a slaughter, just like the last one had been. If Axia's goal was to get stronger and have real experience in a fight, then she couldn't allow herself to become reliant on the help of others. After all, she wasn't always going to have an absurdly powerful being by her side.

"T-ten of them? I thought there was only supposed to be three..."

Hearing that the number of opponents had greatly increased, the dragon faltered slightly. Fighting three of them alone might have been difficult, but fighting ten of them was on another level altogether. Taking on a task like that bordered on suicidal... but then again, if Axia was the type to give up easily, she would have abandoned this 'mission' long ago. If anything, being told that backing down would be wise only made her more determined.

"I can't let myself back down now, though. There might come a day where I have no choice but to fight, and I need to be prepared for something like that. Besides, even if you say there's nothing wrong with giving up, I'd still be disappointed in myself."

After making it clear that she had no intention of letting a more difficult battle get the best of her, the dragoness turned to gaze at the infernal dome. There was no way of knowing if the barrier could be shattered through physical contact, or if it was dangerous to touch. Regardless, she started prepping herself for battle, prepared to take to the skies at a moment's notice.

ValamLym

Nymiria simply nodded in response to the dragon's words. Whether she was happy or not with the outcome completely out there still, as her face was not going to give more then the shortest of grin's.  She quietly turned toward the direction of the sinners, using her hounds their eyes to see in the camp. It appeared they were drawing even more sinner's here, thinking of setting up a refuge of sorts. She couldn't help but smirk at that, they really had guts, she had to give them that.

When she broke the connection she turned to the dragon again ''There's ten of them now, but they are bringing more.'' she stated ''Its only a matter of time before more arrive, it seems they want to set up a sanctuary of sorts.'' she turned and stepped toward the camp, extending her palms, firey green energy sparked, creating an invisible dome around the camp.

''They will not be able to run, but neither will you.'' she turned to the dragon, gesturing for her to step toward the camp ''they are all yours.''

------

Meanwhile in the camp the sinners were setting up a portal of sorts, to bring through their kin. Five were actively working on it in the center of the camp while the rest patrolled the outskirts, unable to detect the barrier unless they wandered to far, giving the dragon the element of surprise should she take it.


Bunbun

So, there were more of them on the way... that meant that every moment Axia spent second guessing herself was only going to make the fight harder. If she was going to go through with this, then she needed to act as soon as possible. As much as she wanted to warn the sinners of her approach and give them a chance to prepare themselves for battle, if she did that then she'd essentially be digging her own grave. She needed to take every advantage she could get, even if such tactics were considered dishonourable by some. Turning to Nymiria, the dragoness spoke once more before heading into the infernal dome.

"I'm going in. I'll, uh, see you in a few minutes. Hopefully."

They were some pretty casual words considering what she was about to do, but she mostly said them in an attempt to convince herself that it was, well, normal. Immediately afterwards, she started running towards the dome and flapping her wings until she had enough speed to take off. She flew higher and higher, eventually stopping and circling around in the sky like she'd done earlier that day. Hanging in the air, Axia finished mentally preparing herself- once she went in, it was kill or be killed. There would be no way for her to turn back, even if she wanted to.

Once again, the dragon began to fall towards the ground while picking up a dangerous amount of speed. However, this time her momentum wouldn't be a hinderance- instead, she would use it as a formidable weapon. Frantically flapping her wings, Axia shot herself into the dome and locked on to the nearest sinner. Showing no signs of slowing down, she aimed to slash the renegade with one of her wings. If all went well, her blazing speed in combination with her jagged scales would be able to do some serious damage.

ValamLym

OOC: Sorry, short one.

Nymiria couldn't help but chuckle as the dragon took off with its final comment, turning her own gaze toward the camp and folding her hands behind her back, as if she was a recruiter of sorts testing her potential recruit against some live targets.

---

When the dragon flew in she was quickly spotted, her speed however was hard to prepare for and one of the sinner's fell quickly to her attack, her wing splitting it in half with relative ease, showing that sinner mortal forms were especially fragile, mainly because they were made out of soul stuff rather then flesh.

However, they didn't come unarmed, they immediatly retaliated as one of their kin fell, throwing bolts of infernal magic at the dragon from one side, while five other's tried to catch her with infernal chains and pull her to the ground.

----

Meanwhile Nymiria simply continued her observing but brought her hounds in close should she be needed to take action. She didn't intend to let the dragon die, but the dragon didn't need to know that. She was sincerely curious as to how much the dragon could whistand before crumbling, or if she would simply succeed.

Bunbun

Axia didn't feel much- physically or emotionally- as her wing cleanly sliced straight through the sinner. She wasn't entirely sure if that was because it never got a chance to react to her attack or if she was just getting more used to killing, but it was a little unsettling either way. The dragon finally brought her forward momentum to a stop, turning around and hovering a little in the air. Her eyes caught a glimpse of the sinner (or what was left of it, anyways), but she couldn't afford to dwell on it. There was no longer any time to think, only enough time to act.

Immediately, Axia found herself confronted by the rest of the sinners. Noticing some of them preparing to cast spells, she reflexively put her front legs in front of the rest of her body in order to block them. As the magical bolts approached the dragon, they suddenly began to grow in strength, becoming enhanced by an invisible force. These enhanced bolts exploded on impact with the dragon's scales, shattering a few of them and sending crystalline dust into the air. Thankfully, her scales managed to absorb the brunt of the attack, leaving the rest of her body relatively unharmed.

However, Axia wasn't prepared for what came next. A volley of chains approached from behind her, becoming covered in flames as they approached. One of them managed to latch onto her one of her back legs, yanking her towards the ground with great power. Unable to overcome the force, she quickly made contact with the ground and crashed into the snow. She immediately tried to break free from the burning chain, but it was simply wound up too tight for her to make any meaningful progress. Well, now she really wished she knew how to change forms- it would make escaping this situation a lot easier.

Seeing as she was now unable to take to the skies, Axia quickly tried to adapt her fighting to her new situation. Desperately, she thrashed her tail around, trying to take out anyone why tried to approach from behind. Meanwhile, she dashed towards the one who had chained her to the ground, slashing at them with both claws.

ValamLym

In surprise, the sinner was unable to fend off Axia and was pounced shortly after. Meanwhile, the rest worked tirelessly to avoid her tail, one even attempting to impale it with a spear. The group throwing the chains would simply continue trying to pin the dragon to the ground.

Meanwhile Nymiria simply observed, her hounds circling the dome in case something was about to go wrong, she had no idea whether the dragon was up to the task but so far so good. It wasn't as if Axia was chance-less or weak, she however still doubted ten sinners could be overcome so easily. Or well, eight now.


Bunbun

Once again, a sinner found themselves decimated by Axia's brutal strikes. Effortlessly tearing through the sinners brought her an uneasy, almost surreal feeling, but she was starting to get into the rhythm of battle. Slowly, the dragon's thoughts started to fade away until there was only one left: she had to win the fight, or she was going to die. There were no other options, no other ways out.

Unfortunately, being restricted to the ground meant that the dragoness was now a significantly easier target to aim at. This made the mages' attempt to drag Axia down with chains much more successful, with each one making her movements more sluggish as they landed. Despite having the strength of a dragon, the sheer number of chains was enough to overwhelm her. Realizing that she would soon be incapable of moving if this went on for too long, she started to focus her efforts and energy into breaking free of the chains. She even resorted to using her mouth, managing to bite through a few of them and freeing up some of her body.

In her frenzied efforts to remove the chains, Axia didn't notice the sinner with the spear moving in for an attack. The spear managed to connect with her tail, striking the spot where her scales had been shattered. A sharp pain shot through her body as the spear sunk into her flesh, renewing the stream of blood that had previously flowed earlier that day. In a sudden fit of rage, the dragoness let out a tremendous roar and turned to grab the spear with her claw. The spear stood little chance against her strength, immediately snapping and flying off in various directions while also leaving a few cuts on the underside of her claw.

ValamLym

Roar's of panic and anger continued echoing through the camp as the remaining sinner's continued their struggle. As the mages lost their chains they attempted to replace them with new ones.. While the sinner who's spear had been shattered used magic to create a new one, this time attempting to stab her eye out.

They didn't seem particularly scared of her draconic form, after all coming from hell tended to do that to you. Two more sinner's with axes joined in, attempting to cleave her scales with pure force, beating away at her exposed sides wherever they could.


Nymiria on the other hand decided to creep in closer, standing just outside the dome in case things were going wrong. She contemplated stepping in immediately but she felt that might just insult the dragoness. As such, she continued observing, waiting, seeing when it became absolutely necessary for her to take action.

Meanwhile the circles in the camp began glowing as more sinner's began answering the calls of their kin. She contemplated letting them come in so she could catch more, but that could also compromise the dragon. For now, she'd simply observe as to how the dragon would react to this new factor.

Bunbun

As the fight went on longer and longer, Axia's movements started to become more desperate and erratic. It was a constant struggle of keeping the chains from building up and trying to block the relentless attacks from the sinners. The dragon was being pushed to her limit, constantly exerting all the energy she could to even stand a chance against the sinners.

Noticing that the sinner with the spear had quickly undone the progress she had made and had created a new spear, Axia directed her attention to that particular sinner. She ducked out of the way of the spear, causing it to clash with the scales atop her head to little effect. She followed up by lunging forwards and threw her front leg towards the sinner, aiming to impale them with her jagged scales.

Soon afterwards, one of the sinners with axes brought the blade down on Axia's scales, smashing through them and knocking her onto her stomach. She immediately tried to push herself back up, only to be pushed down by the other axe. This process went on for a little while, but only became more hopeless as her energy was drained away and more chains started to pile on. Eventually, there came a point where the dragoness could do very little to fight back, and could only wait as the blades sliced through her scales and drew more blood.

ValamLym

Nymiria observed as all but one of the sinner's escaped the dragon's wrath, the unfortunate one that didn't being promptly impaled. She however did notice that the dragon was losing substantially now and that, if she were to let this go on for too long, she might even be slain despite a dragon's innate durability. As such, she quickly charged off teleporting into the dome and behind one of the sinner's with an axe, impaling it on infernus, whom had now taken up the form of a flaming sword.

Surprised, the sinner's not using chains to keep down the dragon turned their attention to the demon. Nymiria was easily able to dispatch most, showing she had been fighting these for ages, leaving only the four trying to keep the dragon on the ground. She didn't immediately move to take them out as well, figuring she had a little time.

''Can you finish those yourself or do you need my assistance?'' she calmly inquired, staring at the sinner's whom had trouble concentrating on keeping the dragon down, their resolve wavering as they saw Nymiria.

Bunbun

Coming to the realization that the sinners were no longer swinging their axes, Axia looked up to find Nymiria taking out the sinners left and right with relative ease. This came as a surprise to her, not necessarily because she doubted the demon's strength but rather because she didn't expect her to step in at all. The dragon watched as one sinner after another met their swift demise until only the ones throwing the chains remained. Afterwards, when she was offered the choice of finishing off the rest of the sinners herself, Axia did everything in her power to rise to the challenge.

"I... uh..." the dragon sputtered weakly as she shakily rose to her feet, almost losing her balance several times in the process. She tried to lock on to the remaining sinners, but they seemed to dance around as her vision blurred in and out of focus despite the fact that they were standing still. Feelings of dizziness and nausea flowed through Axia's body, and she started to shiver as she struggled to keep herself upright. This didn't last for long, though, as she was promptly overcome by a violent coughing fit. Finally breaking, she collapsed back into the snow from a combination of her injuries and pure exhaustion.

"...I can't..."

Axia went quiet as she lay in the snow, watching her own blood sink into the ground below. Although she was in no condition to pay much attention to them, her mutated scales started to glow faintly with a soft light. It was a subtle light, but it diverged into several different colours as it refracted across the scales.

ValamLym

Nymiria's eyes narrowed slightly as the dragon spoke, telling her that she could infact not deal with the rest of the sinners. She was somewhat disappointed, not by the lack of strength and resolve coming from the dragon, she actually really liked what she had seen. But she had hoped to see more, but letting her die would not give her that.

Quietly, Nymiria used her speed to leap over the dragon, grabbing a sinner by the throat with one hand and taking the chain from its hands with another, tearing it free from the dragon and using it to smash the other sinner's from the others so that the dragon could get up. She then snapped the neck of the one she held in her hand and threw his corpse at the other's, which caught a few unholy arrows in the process as Nymiria used it to block their shots.

It went quick then, Nymiria took Infernus once more and sliced through the group, dismembering them in the process as she ruthlessly and mercilessly cut them down. It took her mere minutes to dispatch the final one. She let out a sigh, turning her gaze toward the dragon, curling it into a short smile.

''Are you okay?'' she simply inquired, pulling the chains off the dragon if she hadn't free'd herself of them already. She seemed somewhat more compassionate toward the dragon. Mainly cause it had been years since someone managed to earn her respect in such a way. Although she had lost, she had more then proven herself to Nymiria, especially by not being judgmental toward what she was. '"You did well.'' she pointedly stated, gazing at the dragon.

Bunbun

Axia didn't bother looking up to watch the rest of the battle, as the outcome had already been made abundantly clear. It was a forgone conclusion that Nymiria would be able to take out the rest of the sinners without much of an issue. Instead, the dragon closed her eyes and waited for the battle to be over, trying to calm herself down and conserve her energy. When she felt the rest of the chains being removed from her body, Axia rolled onto her side to look up at Nymiria.

"I... should be fine. The cuts will heal eventually, and the scales will grow back. They always do."

The dragon's expression twisted into one of sadness. It was clear that she was growing uncomfortable about the situation, and it showed through her body language. She started to curl up in the snow, avoiding eye contact with the demon. Doing her best to hold back tears, Axia started to speak again, this time a lot more quietly.

"I wasn't anywhere near strong enough. If you hadn't jumped in when you did, I'd be dead right now."

Shaking her head, the dragon started pushing herself back onto her feet. She was still for a moment, taking a few deep breaths and keeping herself steady. Eventually, her eyes wandered over to one of the now inactive hellish circles, rekindling her curiosity to some degree.

"...Why did you interfere, anyways? You probably could've caught more of them if you'd waited longer, you know."

ValamLym

Nymiria couldn't help but feel a sliver of pity as she listened to the dragon speak. It sounded like she hated being ''weak'' and had hoped she could've proven different here. Perhaps asking her to fight had been a mistake? she had no intention of sparking this kind of doubt within the dragon, if her assumption was even accurate.

''Yes, you would have been. But that is what it takes to grow stronger. You cannot learn without first falling.''

Awfully wise words for a demon who normally didn't care. But secretly, she did grow a little fond of this dragon in their time together. When the dragon's second question came that was only confirmed.. She acted because she had begun to care. She hated to admit it, but she cared about a mortal now.

''I can always catch them later, letting you die would've served nothing.''

In her head, the response would've been different. She would've said she thought of this dragon as a friend and that she always protected her friends. But that type of answer was alien to her, it was even ''scary'' it meant showing that she was a living being rather then a killing machine, it meant stepping out of her comfort zone.

''I must apologize for bringing you such risk, it was not my intention.'' she added pointedly, attempting to diffuse the formation of guild in her head.

Bunbun

Like she would do with pretty much anyone else, Axia took the demon's words at face value. She didn't try to read into the true intentions behind her words, as doing so had never been one of her strengths. Instead, she busted listened and carefully considered what she had to say. If there was something to be learned from this, then she'd be more than willing to try.

"Hmm... I guess there can't really be such a thing as success without failure. But still, it's not like you can learn anything when you're dead."

Though she showed little to no signs of emotion, the demon decided to apologize anyways. This made Axia somewhat uncomfortable, as she didn't really want anyone else to feel responsible for her. She didn't want to be a burden on anyone, she wanted to lead her own life. As such, she looked towards the ground nervously when she decided to reply.

"You, uh, shouldn't apologize for that. It was my choice to try and fight them all by myself, so whatever happened because of that was my own fault. That's all there is to it."

Turning her attention to her wounds, the dragon began to clean off her claws and legs, using her tongue almost like a cat would. After doing so for a little while, she briefly paused to ask another question.

"So, what's going to happen next? With the sinners, I mean. It looks like they're not going to be showing up around here anytime soon."

ValamLym

Nymiria rubbed her chin for a moment, contemplating said next step. She knew what would happen to the ones they had already killed, as for the rest, they'd be found eventually, nobody can escape hell's judgement for long. ''The ones that remain will be cut down eventually, as for those who we slew her today.. They will be judged for their heresy. I expect most of them will have their souls destroyed.''

She turned her attention to the sky for a moment, before turning it back to the dragon herself ''Isn't it the human saying? what doesn't kill you makes you.. stronger.'' she rubbed her arm ''Or was it stranger?'' she eventually shrugged, not quite concerned which one it was anymore. ''With a bit more practice you could become a potent fighter.''

Bunbun

"...They'll be destroyed..."

The finality of that word threatened to restore Axia's doubtfulness of whether she'd done the right thing by trying to fight the sinners. Suffering through an eternal punishment seemed pretty bad on its own, but she could only imagine what the consequences of the destruction of one's soul was, not to mention how painful that process would be. The thought alone was too horrible to spend too much time on, so the dragon instead bottled up her emotions and forced them to the back of her mind. Perhaps they would surface again at a later date, but she couldn't let them overtake her will, especially not now. Instead, she nervously dragged her claws through the snow as she waited for the demoness to finish speaking.

When the topic of practicing to become a better fighter came up, Axia responded with a few concerns. "Well, there's kind of a... problem with that. I don't really know how I can practice. I mean, there's not exactly many people out there who are willing to spar with a dragon. I'd probably just end up hurting them, or doing something even worse."

Tags: