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| Even a Thousand Waves; [TM][P] Vyse | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Wed May 23, 2012 6:23 pm (534 Views) | |
| Nkiruka | Wed May 23, 2012 6:23 pm Post #1 |
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Nkiruka hadn't been surprised to discover that Vyserial Noclan was still alive. Her work prevented her from attending the funeral, but she remembered sending a letter back to the informants asking them if the man's head had been definitively severed from his body. When they responded that the body wasn't recovered, doubts eroded at her already tenuous sense of grief. The famous, powerful man was just an acquaintance of hers, so her feelings over his death weren't that strong. What she didn't expect was to meet him at the head of the infamous Grey Road, a long, perilous passageway leading through the Dragonspine Mountains. Having been released from duty and allowed six months of military leave, Nkiruka was preparing for the long trek to the Deep Cities -- her destination was Axerise, where she planned to move in with her partner Zaki Kestrel -- when she came across Vyse. Preferring to take the dangerous hike alone, she set out onto the Gray Road several hours before Vyse planned to begin. Around midday, the soldier spotted movement on a distant ridge, about a half-hour's walk in front of her. A combination of hesitation and worsening weather forced her to hunker down for several hours in a large stone indentation off the side of the road. She remained crouched there in her heavy winter gear, watching the snow fall in sheets, her large backpack containing all her most important possessions sitting against the cave wall. Nkiruka wanted nothing more than to keep pushing ahead, especially after losing so much time to the roiling blizzard, but she knew what kind of terrain she would have to face during the next stretch of narrow mountain road. One misstep and she would tumble at least a hundred feet down one of the numerous sheer drops. And if that didn't kill her, she would surely die at the bottom from exposure. Gods, why did it have to be so goddamn cold up here? She spotted Vyse passing by, but was feeling too sluggish to try to hide. She wasn't in the mood for more small talk, so her only defense against his friendliness was to encase herself in frozen acrimony. The soldier straightened a little, glaring at him over the white scarf she had pulled up over most of her face. |
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| Vyse | Wed May 23, 2012 7:47 pm Post #2 |
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Vyse had found a leave of absence from work refreshing, he was traveling around and challenging strong fighters and warriors to duels, so far he had won every match, but a few were far to close for comfort. He realized he needed training, and there were few that could match him in power in the past, but now that he was significantly weaker he needed speed, agility, and an indomitable spirit. He had been lucky to see someone he would never forget, the champion of the Summer Sun Tournament, Nkiruka Menai. They had fought once before, but Vyse had thrown the fight for personal reasons, one of them being that he needed to make a trading route work and losing the match while still showing he was strong was one of the best ways to do it. His only advantage in that fight was his draconic might, but with it gone he needed to learn something more. He tried to follow Nkiruka, but lost her in the morning when she left before he woke up, when he learned of her direction he had called forth his traveling companions, Umbriel, Raja, Anisa, and Asra, his dire tiger mount and her three cubs. He wore a heavy blue jacket for the cold, black pants, and fur lined brown boots, his extra arms were once again hidden inside his vest's hidden pocket beneath his jacket, his four blades hung at his belt. He mounted the armored Umbriel and started out, knowing full well that if he rushed it he could miss her down a path, he had to take it slow... well slow for a dire tigress cub, the three cubs loved to rush ahead and wrestle as Umbriel and Vyse trailed a bit behind. It was only a few hours until Umbriel stopped, sniffing the air for a few moments, slowly following it until she looked at a wall of white snow. Umbriel found it odd that snow smelled like a human... so she gave it a nudge with her head, and then looked at it, licking the face of the person trying to hide. Vyse watched curiously as Umbriel started to stare at the snow, the cubs had started to come back to see what their mother was smelling, quickly joining in with the search, purring loudly as they went. Vyse focused on finally made out a human figure as Umbriel licked it's face, he smiled as he squinted his eyes, "First? Ah, it is you First, I tried to get your attention yesterday but you ran away, now you're hunkered down here in the cold? Come on, get on Umbriel's back, it's quite a bit warmer. I'll give you a lift as we talk, I have a small request to make." The request was for training of course, the woman was faster then him and had a similar style, he could learn from her and improve his own style, he wasn't the man with monstrous strength anymore, now he wanted to be the man with a strong combination of strength and speed. |
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| Nkiruka | Sat May 26, 2012 1:55 pm Post #3 |
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Nkiruka released a quiet groan, waving her arm sluggishly to make Umbriel back off. She dusted the rest of the collected snow off her shoulders and legs before taking a step forward and straightening to her full height. As a now full-time Istani, Nkiruka had gained a natural adaptation to heat, at the cost of her tolerance for cold, and this posed a problem every time she needed to hike north. To compensate, she wore several more layers than Vyse which she could don and shed at any time depending on how strenuous the hike was. Indeed, she had fine-tuned her cold weather gear to nearly an art form, though it didn't exactly look pretty on her. Lots of fur-lined things blowing in the wind, only her black-flecked golden eyes glaring out from her hood and scarf could be used to identify her reliably. That and her smell. Well, now she smelled like tiger drool, so less so with that aspect. As a sort of mockery or mimicry of Nkiruka formerly calling Vyse by the name of Fourth, which she had done initially because she didn't know his name and then later when it just stuck, the merchant himself called her First. Her eyebrow gave a barely noticeable twitch with annoyance. She held out her arms to her sides slightly, palms-up, like she was indicating the thick snow around them. "Can't you see there's a storm right now? Not to mention I spotted some kind of army about half an hour down the road -- a very perilous road, mind you." The soldier emphasized the last bit, like she was informing him of something she thought he didn't already know. The Grey Road had a few thick parts, but mostly tracked through the best parts of the Dragonspine mountains, which were still pretty bad; edges of mountainsides, cliffs, switchbacks, it was a nightmare. The other people on the road didn't help with this, and Nkiruka wasn't sure she even wanted to know what a small army was doing on this highway. "What is it you could possibly want from me?" Edited by Nkiruka, Sat May 26, 2012 10:24 pm.
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| Vyse | Sat May 26, 2012 9:56 pm Post #4 |
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Vyse smirked as he saw Nkiruka shake the snow off of her form, her golden eyes looking up at him. Umbriel still purred deeply, though she stopped licking, but her cubs on the other hand were sniffing Nkiruka and rubbing their heads against her legs. Vyse smiled warmly as he listened to Nkiruka, she apparently thought this snowfall was a snow storm, she was from the desert, but Vyse had traveled through worse. Vyse shrugged, "I've been through worse, had to hike through these mountains while Umbriel was sick, going through on foot in a storm is far to dangerous, makes it even more of a reason to bring my mount with me, her fur will keep us warm for days." He stroked some of the exposed fur and listened to her deep purr. He slowly dismounted and looked at Nkiruka, "If there is an army I think we could take it, or they might not even bother two wanderers. As for the request... I believe we share a similar style of fighting, but I believe you're better at it then I am. I want you to teach me how to fight, the sooner the better, we could even use this so called army our training dummies." That much was true, on Umbriel's back he was a force to be reckoned with on large battle fields. He looked up at the sky as the snow started to slow it's pace, the storm was breaking, if only for a while, but during this time he could learn, he could fight. |
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| Nkiruka | Sun May 27, 2012 6:58 pm Post #5 |
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Nkiruka looked mildly horrified by the affectionate response of what were apparently Umbriel's cubs. The last time an animal was actually friendly to her -- not outright hostile -- it had ended in her getting badly hurt for no real reason. She listened to Vyse's explanation and request while biting her lip. "I see." Training others had become more routine with her lately as more and more people managed to find her, even though this particular case was surprising to her. Vyse would have won the last time they fought; he just let her win so that she wouldn't humiliate herself in front of some of the army's top brass. It was true that both of them shared fighting styles. Before saying anything more, the soldier climbed up onto Umbriel's back and lightly wrapped her arms around Vyse's waist. Riding a tiger was a lot smoother than she thought it would be. Unbriel's body barely jostled her around even on this perilous terrain. Nonetheless, Nkiruka looked down the edge of the road leading down a hundred-foot drop and swallowed. She could never understand how a man could trust an animal's steps more than his own feet; she felt downright powerless sitting here. "It depends," she answered. "We need to find out more about them before we decide how we want to handle it. Most likely they're a dispatch from the Deep Cities, and we'll just have to wait until they're through." Her prediction about the giant road block became less and less likely the more of them she could see. Every time her eagle's eyes pierced the snow and got a good view of them while they approached, she learned something new about them. "Their gear isn't standardized. Lots of people wearing cobbled-together winter plate. Shields on their backs. Human-sized, not dwarves." Nkiruka paused, letting this information sink in. "Who the hell are these people?" As they approached even closer to their rear guard, the soldier shifted closer to Vyse in order to speak almost directly into his ear, in a whisper. "I have a bad feeling. If they attack us, just remember one thing: we are small, and this passageway is narrow. They can only get maybe five or six people around us, maximum. A berserker flourishes with decreasing odds of success, because as the situation becomes more and more desperate, our real strength emerges." She exhaled slowly, releasing a puff of vapor; she took off her mittens in preparation, rubbing heat into her cramped fingers. "In the middle of combat, I expect everything to suddenly become very... clear for you. Your mind will sink into a trance. Does that make any sense?" |
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| Vyse | Sun May 27, 2012 10:07 pm Post #6 |
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Vyse smirked as Nkiruka got on the back of Umbriel, holding him tightly as they rode, Umbriel tried her best to keep her movements quick and tried to make it so she didn't jostle her riders to much. Vyse was fine though, his body automatically moved with Umbriel to keep himself almost completely still, he heard Nkiruka speak to him about needing more information about the possible foe. He listened to her describe the foes and grimaced, the men sounded like mercenaries at best... but with his luck it was probably the largest horde of bandits that he'll ever see. He slowed Umbriel down as she explained how a berserker fights, he kept in mind that the more foes the stronger they would be... but the trance hit far to close to home then he liked, his trance was called Bloodwrath, and it was far to dangerous to use with allies nearby. He nodded as Umbriel stopped, letting the two off, "Okay, I'll remember that... but I hope this trance is different from my normal one, I don't want the Bloodwrath to destroy everyone." Once he dismounted he offered a hand to Nkiruka to help her down, he spoke once more before turning to walk towards their foes, "I don't have my draconic might anymore Nkiruka, I am of the same strength as you are, but I still lack speed. I will try my best to learn from you, and try my best to become strong again." He started walking towards the men. Umbriel knew her cub's mind, she would follow from a ways behind to protect her cubs, when the cubs took a few steps to follow Vyse, Umbriel let out a low growl, causing the cubs to sit down, waiting with their tails between their legs. |
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| Nkiruka | Thu May 31, 2012 3:51 pm Post #7 |
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Nkiruka flashed a knowing smile. "There's a difference between a hazy mind and a sharp one." She usually wasn't one for vague statements like that, but their presence had caught the attention of the rearguard who turned to walk toward them. A wave of halt flowed through the army from back to front; the moving shields on their backs stopping looked like a gust of wind in a field of grass. Nkiruka elevated her voice to a shout so it could be heard by the section visible on the ridge, taking a stand in the snow with her blades held at either side. "You would stop an entire army for a pair of travelers?" "We know who you are," someone deeper in the crowd shouted back, and the words echoed in fragments between some of the others. "This is their only resistance?" "Doubtful the Guard even knows yet." "Do not underestimate the Twinblade and the Noclan." Amidst the chatter, a more well-equipped woman pushed out of the formation. She was a commander figure of some sort, based on the sequence of plumes on her helmet. The wind blew harder around them, pushing snow in sheets against the ridge. In this part of the Grey Road, there were dropoffs on both sides; any misstep and they could be plummeting either way. The woman carried a tower shield like it was weightless, a spear in her other hand. "Nkiruka Bower." "Menai, actually." "I almost didn't recognize you without your wings." "And why exactly are you running with an army of thugs?" Nkiruka asked. "Money is money," she answered, shrugging a bit. "Once the Shield-Bearers reach Axerise, the spoils will be tremendous. We finally have enough manpower to take down the city." Nkiruka stared at the half-dwarven woman blankly for a moment, then threw her head back and burst out laughing. "Well, if that's the case, do you want to die now or in Axerise?" She was not amused by the soldier's boast. She lifted her hand to give the signal to attack, but midway into the motion Nkiruka had practically disappeared before her eyes. Arivaz flashed under the commander's raised arm and deeply slit her exposed armpit, kicking her down while she roared in pain. Her eyes flashed to Vyse. "Cut them down!" It was an order to him, but her voice was so loud that it released a shockwave in all directions, making the ground tremble. The army, which was beginning to charge at them, faltered just slightly. They would never recover.
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| Vyse | Thu May 31, 2012 6:36 pm Post #8 |
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Vyse drew his four blades, as Nkiruka spoke, someone within the army shouting that they knew who they were. Vyse looked at the army, the large force was quite obviously not friendly, as the next exchange of words proved. The people were called 'Shield-Bearers', they were apparently getting ready to invade Axerise, Vyse had never visited the place before and had heard little of it, but it was obvious these men and women were evil. When Nkiruka made her move and ordered the attack, her voice causing a rippling shockwave of intimidating power, Vyse couldn't help but feel a bit challenged, letting out his own war cry, "None can kill the Noclan!" His own shout didn't give out the same shockwave of Nkiruka's shout, but instead seemed to be layered with an indisputable truth that anyone could hear, none could kill the Noclan, and now every soldier knew their demise was certain as they fought the immortal foe. Vyse knew they would never recover from his words, he had seen it all to many times. Vyse charged into the battle, his four blades in hand, meeting the waiting shields with a thunderous clash of steel. He kept up a string of attacks, the men and women that tried to stand in front of him and try to stand up to his assault, were crushed by the amount of attacks and the multiple directions the blades came from. He could already feel the Bloodwrath on the fringe of his mind, slowly trying to overpower his senses, Vyse growled as he tried to focus and sharpen his mind, but in the middle of the fight it seemed to hinder him, his slashes slowed as he tried to fight his internal enemy. He found he could barely keep his enemies at bay, let alone kill them one at a time, he growled as he focused his mind on a single blade, using it to it's utmost speed and strength, and he continued to fight this way, focusing on one sword at a time, slowly adding more attacks to it. His mind became clearer the more he focused on the flashing blades, it got sharper as he concentrated on his stream of attacks, finally nothing but the flashing steel of his blades was in his mind, everything was clear, he felt no Bloodwrath, he just felt... focused. |
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| Nkiruka | Fri Jun 8, 2012 2:17 am Post #9 |
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As Vyse focused on mastering his control of his emotions and Bloodwrath, Nkiruka was busy cutting a swathe through anything that wasn't torn apart by her comrade's quad-wielding. So that was why he always looked chubby, she vaguely thought seconds before she allowed her own mind to slip into the overwhelming focus of a martial trance. Her eyes became greatly dilated to the point that only a tiny ring of gold surrounded a pair of massive pupils. She surged forward, Arivaz a blur of black and red, the blood flowing too quickly to crystallize on the blade. Even with the expensive chainmail worn by some of the fighters, Nkiruka's strength was simply too great to negate the crushing power of every hit; she broke bones with her sharp edges. Arivaz itself became coated with such a thick layer of crystallized blood that the next time she whirled her blade into a group of Shield-Bearers she unleashed it all in a cloud of sharpened fragments, digging into exposed skin in all directions. Even she got hit with a few, though it was safe to say that the berserker was beyond caring about all the minor injuries her body was sustaining. |
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| Vyse | Fri Jun 8, 2012 10:21 pm Post #10 |
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Vyse felt something else mix in with his form, his Bloodwrath was coursing through his veins, the whites of his eyes turning blood red as he fought, but now everything was in perfect focus. It wasn't good to fight the Bloodwrath, but now he felt one with the curse, as if it was finally giving him something in return for warping his mind. His flashing blades started to flow, his body moving as if he was in a liquid form, but instead of feeling the normal joy of battle, the feelings were multiplied a thousand times more. He laughed as he fought, his blades finding flesh or battering away shields with each strike, only causing the men to back step away from what they perceived as a psychotic four armed warrior taking to much pleasure in the fight. One of the men ran up shouting out, "The Noclan is mine!" Some of the men shouted out, "Sergeant Mathison is coming to battle! Make way for the Axe of the North!" Though before he even swung his axe, three blades lodged themselves in his stomach and a blade started to cleave through his neck, Vyse simply grinned as one of the officers fell to his assault. |
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| Nkiruka | Sun Jul 1, 2012 4:25 pm Post #11 |
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The air went deathly quiet after the final shield clattered to the ground. Nkiruka stood with blades slightly outstretched, dripping blood from head to toe, the red of her enemies mixing with strands of black dribbling from her own wounds. A gentle breeze carried the scent of the carnage to the carrion-birds who started flocking along the road and down the rocks outcroppings of the cliffs where many had fallen. Every single Shield-Bearer was dead. Even after what felt like a thousand waves of enemies, both Nkiruka and Vyse were still standing. Nkiruka, who was further down the road, waited for Vyse to approach on Umbriel before shakily climbing back up onto the beast's legs, holding onto her temporary student's waist to steady herself. She had a subtle, placid smile on her face, her gaze unfocused and the rhythm of her breathing falling back into something more regular. "Four arms, huh..." was all she mumbled at first, giving a soft chuckle. "Let's get out of here." It took a surprisingly short time to cross the Gray Road with Umbriel, much faster than hiking on foot at least. They managed to reach the Deep Cities by dusk. Nkiruka slid off of the giant tiger's back, intentionally avoiding the playful cubs while she lifted her arm to give Vyse a handshake. "I have to go tell law enforcement about what happened. Thank you, Vyserial Noclan. I hope we meet again. Good luck with your newfound power." |
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| Vyse | Tue Jul 3, 2012 8:13 pm Post #12 |
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Vyse breathed heavily as he let the blood drip from his blades... the only living things on the battlefield were himself, the crows, and Nkiruka. He sighed heavily as he whistled for Umbriel, wiping his blades off on a man's shirt that wasn't completely saturated in blood. Once Umbriel and her cubs had arrived he mounted Umbriel, riding slowly over to Nkiruka. It wasn't surprising that she had never seen his arms... after all, he hadn't shown them to her in the last fight, but now it was time to rest. He tried to slow his breathing as the Bloodwrath's after effects took form, but it didn't seem as bad, he only hacked up a bit of blood and felt sick to his stomach... this trance he had been taught wasn't as strong as the Bloodwrath... but it had less drastic effects on his body. He had Umbriel running for hours before they arrived at the first town of the deep cities, Vyse felt sick as Nkiruka go off of Umbriel. He shook her hand and smiled, afraid if he spoke he would vomit blood all over his one time master. He waved goodbye as he slumped back a bit, he was tired... he would need to find the inn first before anything else. |
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7:02 PM Jul 11

