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Post by Aleksei Trevelyan on Feb 19, 2008 17:21:18 GMT -5
One intrepid little imp had snuck past the trench's defenses, hiding behind an orc. Once its shield had fallen, the cat-sized demon leaped down at one of the defenders, screeching like a banshee.
Unluckily for it (or luckily, as it would turn out), the defender it was attacking was Kitty.
"Immobulus!" she cried, dropping her rifle in favor of a wand. The imp shrieked and crashed to the ground mid-flight. Kitty bent over and picked it up. "Serves you right for trying to get in here, you rascal," she muttered, but couldn't quite bring herself to kill the thing. In some odd way, she admired its mettle. She removed its little spear from its frozen grasp, trying not to break its long, spindly fingers, and conjured up a cage for it. She didn't normally like conjuring things up - it felt like cheating, somehow - but these were desperate times, and desperate measures were called for. She put it in the cage, draped someone's discarded jacket over it, and stowed it away.
The rifle almost jumped into her grasp again, and she grimaced. More killing. Hooray.
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Sam O'Neill
Head of House
Head of Hedwig Astronomy Professor[M:0:0:0:]
Posts: 176
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Post by Sam O'Neill on Mar 1, 2008 21:14:48 GMT -5
Seeing as the onslaught of demons was not coming to a halt any time soon, and in fact was becoming more brutal by the second, Sam wondered vaguely whether bullet-proof vests might have been a wise idea. But, she thought as she sidestepped a beam of light that blew up a pike in front of her, they weren't exactly getting shot at with bullets.
Just the demons were. Jack couldn't say he was enjoying this exactly, but there was something distinctly satisfying about getting back into the action. When Sam flinched away from the exploding shards of wood, he found the source of the problem, an ugly-ass warlock with an attitude problem.
Well, had an attitude problem. Present tense required him to be alive.
"Sam, I thought I told you to stay out of trouble!" he yelled over the din of the battle.
"Since when do I ever do what you tell me?" she shot back, grinning playfully, and continued firing at anything outside the trenches.
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Arlene Sainz
Hedwig
6th year
Cierra Remirez Elsa
6th year[M:0:
Posts: 798
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Post by Arlene Sainz on Mar 1, 2008 21:46:18 GMT -5
Arlene's mind was mounting to a cacophony of thoughts and feelings that did not belong to her, swirling into a mixed mesh inside her head. She hadn't yet sensed the bittersweet, putrid waves of death, however. There was pain, most of it from the demon side, but no human deaths yet. That surprised Arlene. The fact that it surprised her scared her. Didn't she have more faith in Valcentica students? Most of them knew how to fight. Most of them wanted to fight. Either way, the fact that no one had died yet was certainly reassuring.
At this point, though, Arlene was severely doubting that, if someone did die, she'd be able to pinpoint who. Or even where. The beach was covered in demons thinking very death-related thoughts, and the trenches were filled with humans and... half-humans... with varying degrees of fear, repulsion, anger, and surprise. Arlene could still handle it - she handled this kind of pent-up emotion from several people in one place a lot, at mealtimes especially - but the moment anyone left the trenches and the real fighting began, Arlene knew she would not be able to think straight. Her head was already starting to hurt, and the battle had barely started.
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Post by Aleksei Trevelyan on Mar 12, 2008 15:51:45 GMT -5
It was no longer prudent to remain in the trenches.
"Soldiers!" Trevelyan cried out, raising his voice to cut through the din of battle like only a true commander could. "It's a little boring down here, don't you think?" He was met by a few grim chuckles from the defenders. He took a deep breath and raised his wand high above his head. "At my signal, unleash hell."
The agent-turned-professor waited for a few moments while the students discarded their ranged weapons in some cases to pick up their melée weapons for close combat. Callahan had dropped her sniper rifle with something resembling disgust, picking up her Beater's bat and carrying the glaive with one hand. All eyes, those that could see, were on him.
If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, the voice of Russell Crowe echoed in his head. For you are in Elysium, and you're already dead!
Trevelyan set his jaw and fired a cascade of blinding red sparks into the air that would confuse their opponents. "Attack!" he roared, vaulting out of the ditch to confront the demon forces.
The battle was far from over.
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Arlene Sainz
Hedwig
6th year
Cierra Remirez Elsa
6th year[M:0:
Posts: 798
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Post by Arlene Sainz on Mar 14, 2008 17:00:29 GMT -5
It took Arlene several moments to realize that the words cutting into her conscious were actually spoken, and not a stray thought she was picking up. She focused on the voice and what it was saying, trying to block all the unnecessary thoughts and emotions from entering her mind. She may as well have tried to hold back an ocean with a hand basket.
Still, the professor's words helped steady her. Her perception of her surroundings cleared up from the foggy vapors distorting it, and she was able to think straight, if only for a few moments. Enough time to imprint one thought and one thought only into her muscle memory.
We are going to win. No matter what.
And then Arlene plunged herself into what physically was the area outside of the trenches, and what mentally was a maelstrom of pain and anguish swirling through her mind, threatening to overwhelm her. And that's when all the death started.
There was no concept of time on the beach battlefield. Arlene was on automatic pilot, whirling through monsters and demons that all merged into one enemy. Her limbs were aching, she was exhausted, she was covered in blood and heavy bruises. But it all paled in comparison to the beating her mind and psychic was taking. Two hours could have passed, or two days - it all meant the same to her right now.
She almost didn't catch Ziltik's words. If he hadn't been doing the mental equivalent of yelling at the top of his lungs, she would have missed it entirely. Her veins turned to ice at the message.
No. No, dammit! Aren't you satisfied with the destruction you're causing now?
She tried to project the thought-message to as many people as she could, help spread the warning, but she didn't get very far at all. She was a powerful psychic, but that didn't matter if she didn't know how to block unwanted thoughts from taking over. Especially during battles. The most she could handle right now was levitating and slashing a sword, and even that didn't have much power behind it anymore. Arlene was vaguely aware that she should stay back near the trenches, back where the easier demons were in her weak state. But that was really all the sentient thought she had room in her turbulent mind for.
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Post by Karia Sto-Helit on Mar 15, 2008 10:13:52 GMT -5
With the amount of demons pouring onto the beach, there was no point in staying in the trenches. Hearing Trevelyan's voice cut cleanly through the din of the battle, it was like a small ray of sunshine in the gathering darkness. That man knew how to rally an army.
Slinging the P90 over her shoulder for later use if needed, Karia climbed up the side of the trench and sprung out onto the beach, already stained with many different colors of blood, fortunately none of which was from their small band of defendors. It didn't seem to make much sense, really, that they were holding out. But then again, it's always amazing to see what people can do when held over the volcano's edge.
Drawing the steel katana from its sheath, the blade was hungry for blood. And Karia had no qualms about fulfilling that desire. The clouds of red sparks disapated, and the melee was on. Storming into the clumps of confused demons, many now without heads or simply ending at the waistline, Karia sliced at anything that moved.
It was a strange feeling, killing these demons. There wasn't any pain or fear that she could feel as their lives ended. Merely a sort of empty coldness, but she was thankful for that. If demon deaths felt like human ones, she probably would have lost her own internal battle a long time ago.
We won't lose this battle, and I won't lose against myself. I can't... she thought with determination. Eyes glimmering along with her sword, the slaughter continued.
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Sam O'Neill
Head of House
Head of Hedwig Astronomy Professor[M:0:0:0:]
Posts: 176
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Post by Sam O'Neill on Mar 16, 2008 20:58:51 GMT -5
At Alec's call, Sam had swung around momentarily to look at her husband. She knew it might be the last she saw of him for some time. Her crystal blue eyes tore through the clouded air to meet Jack's searching gaze.
Their eyes locked on each other for a moment. Then Sam nodded, smiled grimly, and launched herself out of the trench. Jack was half a step behind her; he'd never been too happy with hunkering down to fight. He wanted to be in the thick of it, wanted to see what he was killing face to face so the last thing it saw was him before darkness fell into its eyes.
He didn't enjoy killing, but when he had to do it, he wanted to do it right. And Jack wanted to keep his wife alive too; he damn well wasn't going to lose her here.
Nothing would stop the two of them except death, and even that didn't tend to keep them down for long.
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Post by Aleksei Trevelyan on Mar 30, 2008 11:48:57 GMT -5
The battlefield was the embodiment of chaos, disemboweled demons strewn about the area. The Valcentican defenders had taken no casualties - yet. Sure, Jackson had gotten a rather nasty acid burn on his leg, but that was treatable. A few of Vissiand's clan had bitten the dust and bitten it rather nastily. Trevelyan had every desire to forget the horrible scream of the vampire that had been torn limb-from-limb by the ravenous demon-dragons.
Powers give me strength, he prayed, and lined up eighteen words in his head, ready to unleash the nineteenth when the attacking demons got close enough.
There! Movement! He spat the word out, and one of the dragons exploded rather messily into a sickly black patch. Despite the fact that the wizardry made him abhor taking a life, he smiled grimly. He wasn't going down, not without taking half of Ashkahn's forces with him at least.
He said the word again, and again, and each time a nearby demon exploded into a rain of blood. They may not have been human, but they were organic, and once the membranes are removed from in between an organic being's cells, what can it do but collapse into a pile of nuclei and something that rather resembled Jell-o?
This stand was reminiscent of Leonidas at Thermoplyae. He only hoped that it would end better. They were the first line of defense - the school would be the second and last.
How in God's name did they get in here anyway? Trevelyan thought as yet another demon was replaced with a pile of oozing goo. I suppose the protective wards don't keep demons from entering.
He couldn't keep this up forever. Already his power was draining. To conserve what little wizardry he had left, he switched to his wand, firing off curses at the demons. This was less effective, mainly because there were few curses that worked properly against demons larger than imps.
"Frak it," he snarled, and stowed his wand, switching to more conventional weaponry. This way he could make sure that the demons went down, and stayed down. He rarely missed.
Just to be safe, he took a quick check to see how everyone was doing. Surprisingly, they all seemed to be faring rather well, even the first-years. Teatime was like a mad top, spinning around with a hint of blue flaying the flesh from demons on all sides, laughing harshly like his father, high on the thrill of battle and gore. Davidson was doing something with his faerie powers in the healing trench, making himself useful. A spike of wrongness flared up in his mind, and he could have groaned aloud. Morgale! No doubt it was him - the power was pure vampire, sure enough. Alec pushed the distraction aside, but it remained, like a fly buzzing in his ear, reminding him of his sworn duty.
He has crossed the line. Destroy him.
No! I can't...not now. Once this is over...
Callahan had also realized the futility of using a wand, and was wailing away at demons alternately with her Beater's bat, her glaive, and the Lightning Gun. That required quite a few minutes to charge for each shot, though, so more often than not it was slung over her shoulder while she cracked heads and wrought havoc with the bat and glaive. The demons had descended upon the sweet-looking little girl with the piece of sports equipment, and left with shattered arms, if they were lucky.
"Who else wants some?!" she crowed out triumphantly, whacking at a demon whose kneecaps she'd caved in with one great strike. One of Ashkahn's lieutenants did, apparently. Trevelyan felt, rather than saw, the giant demon rear up behind her, preparing to take her head off with just a swipe of its massive, razor-edged claws...
"No!" he cried out, raising his gun to fire. Out of bullets. Damn! He discarded the now-useless bit of metal and sprinted off towards his charge. "Callahan, get down!" he roared.
I failed her once. Not again. Never again.
"Wha?" While Kitty's mind may have questioned him, her legs obeyed of their own accord, instantly folding like she was a puppet whose strings had been cut. Trevelyan was now standing in front of her, protecting her from harm. He tried to call on his wizardry, but the thread slipped away. No use trying it again.
"Get away from her, you bitch," he growled, leveling a discarded sword at the demon's chest, ready to fight and die.
The demon's first swipe carved the blade in twain - the second nearly did the same to him. The third attack was an open-fisted hit, which he hadn't been expecting, and the demon's claws pierced his chest. The sword's hilt dropped from his nerveless fingers as he slid backwards off the wicked claws to the ground. Poison-tipped, he thought muddily, a strange kind of painful euphoria enveloping his brain.
His right hand drifted down to the holster at his leg that held his favorite pistol, the one he'd brought because he'd felt he might need it. I have one last shot. Now I know what I was saving this for. This is why I'm here. Some weird tranquility followed that thought, a sense of purpose he'd been missing for years and years. It seemed like it took an eternity for him to draw the gun and level it at the triumphant demon, screeching its victory to the sky. One shot. That's all I have. He willed the pain to subside enough for him to aim properly, and for just long enough, his hand steadied.
He fired, a one-in-a-million shot. The demon's head disappeared in a mist of blood, brain matter, and bone and it collapsed over backwards. It would not be getting up again. And neither, it seemed, would he.
"Professor!" Kitty cried, hauling herself upright and scrambling over to him.
"Clear off, Callahan, I'm done for," he wheezed, looking up at her as though from very far away.
"No, you're not!" She shook her head, tears spilling from her eyes. "I'm sorry, professor...all I ever do seems to get someone hurt..."
"Bollocks." This word was accompanied by a violent coughing spasm which caused more blood to leak out of the holes in his chest. "I'm proud of you, kid. Not many can do what you've done. Would do what you've done."
"Stop talking!" she said, almost in a frenzy. "Don't keep talking, please, sir! You're only losing energy!"
"What on earth would I - " Violent coughing spasm - "be using that energy for? It's wasted here. All I'm going to do here is die."
"No! Sir, you've got to hang on!"
"Have you ever seen someone with wounds like this survive? Face it, Callahan, I am a goner." She started to protest, but he glared at her. "Be quiet for once in your life and listen to me. Once this has all blown over, go...go talk to Irina. If she's dead, go to Ann. If she's dead, then...then go to my room. There's a mirror in there. It's on panic mode, so it'll activate once you get close enough. Tell them...whoever you end up talking to...you want to know everything." He took a deep shuddering breath, trying to hold onto life for as long as he could. Blood bubbled slightly in the gaping wounds. "There's so much I want to tell you, but I haven't the time...God, I'm so proud of you..." There was a slight trickle of blood in the corner of his mouth, and, if she wasn't mistaken, tears in his eyes.
"I don't understand," she said, feeling very small. The battle seemed to have frozen around them, everything else paling in comparison to the sheer importance of what he was saying, if only she could understand what he meant.
"You will." There was that sensation in his lungs again, like barbed wire being dragged around, only now he couldn't count on Kitty to save him. She was even unable to use her wizardry, any of her powers, any of it, to do anything.
He was definitely going to die. An old man dies. A little girl lives. Fair trade.
"Don't think any less of me because of what I've had to do," he said, his voice getting weaker.
"How could I? It's why most of us are still alive," she said quietly.
"And after...after you've talked to someone, I want you to forgive me. And promise me something, promise me this. Promise me..." Yet another coughing fit, this time producing more blood in his mouth, staining his teeth. "Promise me you'll survive. Not just this fight...all of them."
Kitty then did a very peculiar thing. She lifted his bloodied hand up and put it on her head. "I promise, sir," she said solemnly.
"I'll see you later..." he breathed, and closed his eyes.
There was a dark specter behind them. Come to claim what's yours, then, I see. Third time's the charm and all that. Fancy a game? he asked it.
I HARDLY THINK YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO DEFEAT ME AS SHE DID.
Does it look like I care? You at least have to let me try. Besides, I have a feeling your great-granddaughter won't be able to sway things with you like she did last time. I'm not taking that chance.
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Post by Karia Sto-Helit on Apr 2, 2008 20:22:26 GMT -5
Shrieks and screeches echoed across the battlefield as the demonic hordes fell at the hands of the Valcentican students, staff, and a clan of vampires. Hacked bodies and pools of acidic black blood stained the land, and still the chaos rained.
Karia had stood on the brink of this battle, strangely calm, and even when it had begun she felt no irrational fear. Nervousness, yes, but no panic. Now, surrounded by corpses of hellhounds and demons, she was focused on killing everything that moved around her, and trying to stay in control.
In her hand was a katana, as she had foregone the use of her traditional sword in case she hurt one of her own friends with it. The blade swung side-to-side, slashing, biting into black flesh. Only now, more than two hours into the fray, was she starting to become more concerned. Despite their success in the pass, Ashkahn’s army was endless.
The leather wrapping on the hilt of her blade were sweaty and the metal itself was encrusted with black stains, her arms scratched and her knees were bruised from where she had tripped fighting off an attacking demon. But she had managed to stay away from serious injury, thanks to her skill and her powers, as well as someone up there probably looking after her and the rest of the defenders.
Still, feeling things die all around her left her feeling hollow, cold, but fortunately none of their deaths had any powerful affect on her. She had separated herself from it, forcing any pain down, trying to focus on staying alive and seeing all her friends again. Blood splattered across her clothes as she sliced off the head of a passing demon, and she swiveled quickly to dodge the strike of a second. In that moment, she felt a cold, rushing black on the edge of mind. She could taste the hate and malice, the sharp evil that wanted to be loosed from its cage.
No. I can’t lose it, I have to stay together this time, she thought fiercely, but already, there was a whispering in the back of her mind, hissing like a snake, silky smooth but edged with poison. I am not letting go!
Seemingly of its own accord, the blade continued to swing, lashing out on bodies, wanting to feel the blood and pain. She concentrated hard on keeping herself here, aware, and in control, that she was wielding the deadly weapon in her hands and not something else. Her ears were pricked for the sound of human voices, all of her nerves coiled like springs, every sense on high alert.
Out of nowhere, a sickening pain washed over her, a human pain. Someone she was fighting alongside had been injured, but there was no time to look or help. The pain was familiar, too; someone knew closely. Karia forced the feeling away, her concentration wavering, but in that snatch of time, her eyes closed, and there was the voice again, now loud and clear. Electricity ran through her body, all of her like a live wire ready to burn whatever touched her.
She had few seconds more before it completely overtook her, and she knew it would not matter how hard she fought. A single word ran screaming through her mind as she dropped all defenses to fight herself all over again, shrieking it silently to the world, hoping someone, or just one would hear it.
Arlene!
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Post by Aleksei Trevelyan on Apr 5, 2008 14:45:46 GMT -5
Tears were coursing openly down Kitty's face, and she knelt there in the midst of the battle raging all around her, clutching the fallen warrior's hand to her head. He couldn't be dead. He just...couldn't. It was painful to think that this constant presence in her life would just be gone, just like that.
What do you mean constant, you've known him for all of six months at most. But it felt so much longer. It felt like she'd known him all her life, and now...now he was gone.
This one cannot die. The thought flashed through her head, her own but alien. It had a different tone, like a hundred trumpets, more imperious than what she usually heard in her brain.
What? she asked of herself.
This one cannot die. Do not let him. There is that empty space. Tap into it. You may find it is not as empty as you would think.
But I'm scared, she thought lamely.
Fine, let your fright be his downfall.
Spurred into action by the voice in her head, Kitty closed her eyes and concentrated. Instead of avoiding that strange, empty space, she actively sought it, trying to find what that voice said was there. All of a sudden, it roared up under her fingertips, and she had to keep from jolting. It's not physical...but it is real. She tentatively reached out with her mind, ready to withdraw if it burned.
The fire flared up as she dared to draw nearer. Boldly she pressed on, paying no heed to its warnings. I have to try. He'd want me to try...
Finally, she reached the edge of the fire and took a deep breath. It seemed to be a pillar of white light, flickering slightly. Its brightness was searing, and it nearly broke her concentration. As she approached the core, whispered words sprung up around her like weeds, trying to distract her. The words got steadily louder as she got closer, but she still could not make out what they were saying. The core stood in front of her.
If you take the fire, there will be no return, the voice warned her, cutting through the ambient noise. What will you do then?
I don't know, but I have to try. Kitty reached out and grabbed the fiery column. Instantly the power rushed down her nerves and up her arms and through her brain and in her bones, and burned as it was doing so. She might have screamed; she wasn't sure. It was like a dam of magical power had burst, and she was being flooded with potential she didn't know she had.
Slowly, feeling like a wildfire with legs, Kitty rose from her kneeling position. She was almost painfully aware of everything, from the smell of the dead to the glare of the sun overhead to the stifling humidity of the air. The world seemed to be moving in slow-motion, but she was at twice normal speed. She could even feel other life around her, including a thin, dim thread at her feet. She stooped once more and took the hand that had been on her forehead only recently. There was a spark there, only the dimmest bit of electrical activity, but it was enough to work with. Moving quickly, she pushed some of the excess fire out through her hands to him, not knowing how she knew what to do. There's more than enough here. The magic scurried to the gravest of his wounds, making sure that life was sustainable before trying to help him regain his strength. A pulse burst to life under her fingertips, weak and thready, but there. She scooped up the useless-looking hilt, her glaive, and her Beater's bat and stood again, feeling oddly calm. The voice had left her, or retreated, because she heard it no longer. It was only her own voice that took note of everything she saw.
She knew what to do.
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Post by Catherina Trovinsky on Apr 28, 2008 10:16:53 GMT -5
"Here! Here!"
Cat's shriek was echoed by Kiderusa's frantic cheeps as the flight of dragons hovered over the battlefield. Seven beasts had agreed to help fight, interested in the mass chaos that would insue.
The dragon carrying the girl descended to let her off into the trench, before taking off again for the skies. The other six had already started to attack the horde's side.
Cat and Kiderusa jumped into the trench, scrambling up the side to peer at the carnage ahead. Cat and Kiderusa glanced at each other.
"Do you know where we could find weapons?" Cat asked her draconic companion.
The look that the dragonet gave her was one of complete bewilderment, as if saying how-the-heck-would-I-know?!?
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Mordechai Anielewicz
Professor
Assistant DADA Professor
Lunis Majere Elsa
6th years[M:0:0:0:]
Posts: 265
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Post by Mordechai Anielewicz on Apr 28, 2008 10:23:05 GMT -5
While Mordechai fought with one of the larger demons, and Lunis was going insane in an attempt to keep his mind inside his body. Sarah emerged from the hill which she was hiding, on in order to provide sniper fire. She had emerged with an a missile stand, and wheeled a chest behind her. She stop near the top of the hill and set up the tri-pod. She then open the chest and pulled out a shining white missile, it was labeled SPIKE (WP). She took careful aim, and fire the missile at a demon ship. the missile on its way to the ship passed right by Cat's head. As the missile made contact the ship burst into flame as the White phosphorus consumed the ship.
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Arlene Sainz
Hedwig
6th year
Cierra Remirez Elsa
6th year[M:0:
Posts: 798
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Post by Arlene Sainz on Jun 10, 2008 14:40:38 GMT -5
Arlene's original goal had been to save her psychic and her strength for Karia, for helping her if she ever lost control. She gave up on that long ago. Her right arm was bleeding profusely from the sharp cut of a talon and her left arm had, for some reason unknown to her, become incapable of holding anything. A sword floated beside her, swishing and slicing any demon that got in its way. The sounds of fighting, the shrieks of dying creatures and clashing of cold, hard metal – the sounds had all melted together inside Arlene's head. She wasn't even focusing on her task of killing anymore – she let her psychic take over, hurting anything that wasn't a definite ally. She was numb to feeling, her aching muscles not even registering anymore.
The ground suddenly rushed up to meet her and Arlene flung her arms out to stop herself from landing on her face. She came to a stop a few inches from the surf of the red water, which she didn't even remember approaching. Arlene flipped herself over and turned, crouching, to face whatever had knocked her down.
She was met instead with the horrible feeling of people she knew dying. People she was personally connected to. The medley of emotions spinning through her mind made it impossible to determine exactly who and where; all Arlene could figure out was that at least one person she knew was on the brink of death, and maybe more. She was leaping up with half-formulated thoughts of finding them and helping them somehow when a piercing cry cut through her mind, jolting her alert far more efficiently than anything else could have.
Arlene!
Arlene's bones turned to ice. It was Karia's voice.
Very slowly, as if she were moving underwater, Arlene stood up. The sword nearby flew up to join her as newfound energy trickled into her body. Oblivious to the rest of the fighting, Arlene scanned hard for the familiarity of her friend's mind as she tried to block out everything else.
It wasn't there. Something cruel and black was. Something so filled with hate and malice that Arlene choked on the very sense of it. Even so, she zeroed in on it, her arms shaking. Did that mean Karia had already lost? Or was she still in there somewhere, a tiny spark in amongst the choking black?
It was only a short distance away from her, ten or so demons blocking her way. Arlene flung the sword into one and sent some others flying with her psychic. She didn't care about killing them right now. She just needed to get to Karia.
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Post by Karia Sto-Helit on Jun 10, 2008 14:56:50 GMT -5
The malicious black closed over Karia, and when she opened her eyes and began to move, it was not of her will. She tried to tear away at it, stop it, and regain control. As she watched the scene through her eyes, but as if looking at a television, she watched destruction rained from her hands. It was an extremely efficient killer when it didn’t feel like toying with its prey. And she was smiling again, the muscles contracting at the sight of pain and death.
So much fun, isn’t it? came her father’s voice.
Karia refused an answer, trying desperately to beat back the d**ned thing that had taken over her mind and body. After a while, she realized that she couldn’t fight it and was wasting precious energy until she could come up with a better plan. She was a prisoner in her own body, being dragged along as if she was hanging out of a speeding car, the asphalt ripping her to shreds.
You know this is what you want, the voice said, to see all those people below you, suffering. This who you are.
Once again, Karia did not make any response. Instead, what little of her mind she did control was racing, attempting to come up with an alternate solution. That thought was quickly replaced with unadulterated panic as she looked out and saw whom it was approaching.
Arlene was precious few yards away from the swinging blade in Karia’s hands.
No, no, no, please gods no! she thought, Arlene, run! Please gods, get away from me!
You know this one, do you? Hmm…she looks like easy meat, one slice and it’s over. Won’t it be wonderful? the voice hissed.
Karia felt her feet move, slicing open a path of demons between herself and Arlene, who was using her psychic to kill her assailants. Finding Arlene’s blind eyes, her grip tightened on the katana, raising it into the air. Inside, Karia was screaming, tearing away at whatever was controlling her, wallowing in the futility of it all, overcome by the pure, menacing violence that was about to kill her friend. And somewhere, mingled in with the fury was a sense of incomparable joy, the sick sense of loving what she was about to do.
NO! I WILL NOT KILL THEM! Her efforts redoubled as the blade began to fall, sliding effortlessly through the air towards Arlene’s neck. I WON’T KILL HER!
Fighting harder than she ever had before, Karia felt the resistance waver. In those few seconds, she managed to tie herself down. She couldn’t win, but then again, neither could the evil thing that was controlling body. They would be equals in this fight until someone tipped the balance, and then it would all be over. Arlene had been right.
With a slight shing noise, the razor edged blade stopped inches short of Arlene’s jugular.
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Arlene Sainz
Hedwig
6th year
Cierra Remirez Elsa
6th year[M:0:
Posts: 798
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Post by Arlene Sainz on Jun 10, 2008 17:31:58 GMT -5
Arlene could feel Karia turning and slashing her way through the demons towards her. She must have noticed Arlene's presence, but... Arlene never felt her actually realize she was there. That fact caught Arlene more off-guard than she would have liked it to.
She felt Karia raise her katana into the air as she turned to face her and knew what she was about to do. Sudden instinctive energy flooded into her, strengthening her psychic enough to try and block the sword from going any farther than that. She clenched her knuckles tight, sweat beading on her forehead, focusing all of her energy into keeping the sword right where it was. It was to no avail; the sword still came rushing down towards her neck.
Karia! Wake up! Help, dammit!
Arlene squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the blow, every fiber in her body on hyper mode, every sense elevated to maximum performance. She could physically feel the sword vibrating, swooshing down past her ear and cleanly through her neck.
But the blow never came. The cold metal hovered mere inches from her skin, shaking, but not coming down.
Karia had managed to stop it.
Although Arlene couldn't feel it, she knew that was the very extent of what Karia would be able to do. If she let her concentration slip for even a moment, Arlene was dead. But she had done it.
Arlene remembered how they did it in the Room of Requirement. She took the sly approach, looking for weak spots to try and infiltrate. That was no use with this. Full-on attack, and hoping that she was strong enough to break through, was the only way. Summoning up as much strength as she could muster, Arlene tore through the first defenses of Karia's mind.
She was instantly hit with pure and terrifying evil, hard resistance that worked even better than a solid brick wall. Arlene had to fight with all she had just to be staying right where she was. If she turned back now, the darkness would consume her. She had no choice but to keep going, keep pushing into the impossible bottomless pit of nothingness. Slowly, inch by metaphorical inch, she was able to get through, and closer to Karia. It was a furious battle of literal life and death. If either Arlene or Karia let up any of their resistance, it was over for both of them.
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