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Larger than Life [Complete]; [P] Keelin
Topic Started: Wed Mar 6, 2013 4:37 pm (946 Views)
Drustan
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There were two main things that Drustan disliked about cities.

The first was how civilizations seemed to insist on separating themselves from the earth. It was rare to find even a small village where the streets had not been laid with wooden planks or cobblestones, an artificial layer over the dirt and rock of the planet. Even here in Norwood Village the streets were paved so that an unexpected rainstorm wouldn’t transform the path into a muddy pit. Most people probably didn’t even notice, but the lack of contact with the earth was a decidedly unpleasant sensation for him. He had spent the vast majority of his adult life training as a druid, learning to care for the planet and receive a fraction of its power in return. On the bottom of his bare feet was the proof of his devotion: a pair of elaborate tattoos that stretched from his toes to his heels and allowed him to draw power up from the ground. So long as the markings were touching the ground he possessed vast amounts of strength and was virtually tireless.

The second thing was all of the stares.

Drustan couldn’t blame the general populace for gaping at him. After all, giants were a fairly rare race. His people had long lifespans and few children, so there weren’t very many of them in all of Imythess. He was over eight decades old yet was just now entering the prime of his life, standing nearly fifteen feet tall. It was expected that he would draw some surprised stares, but he still disliked constantly feeling watched. Drustan was wearing simple clothes, a long-sleeved olive green shirt and dark brown pants. Over this he wore a thick hooded cloak made from wool and dyed a deep shade of green. He walked with an oaken staff in one hand and hade a massive greatbow slung over his left shoulder, with the accompanying quiver of arrows hanging from his right hip.

If he could have helped it, the giant would have avoided the village altogether. However, there was no real way to avoid civilization these days. The various races of Imythess had spread across the realm, founding towns everywhere they settled. The archdruidess that had taught him their ways had wistfully spoken of a time when nature was far more wild and given free reign, but that had been centuries ago. Now most of the land had been domesticated and one was forced to search for days to find spots where there were so signs of human influence.

Today he was simply here to trade at the market. He carried a brace of four deer over one shoulder with a leather tarp underneath so their blood wouldn’t stain his garments. He carried the carcasses with no apparent effort despite the fact that he was cut off from the earth and unable to draw upon its strength. Although Norwood Village was home to plenty of fine hunters, Drustan knew he could still exchange the venison for some useful supplies that couldn’t be obtained in the wild. He was drawing close to the market area when he heard a shrill scream from ahead, a noise of sheer terror. It was quickly followed by a loud bang! and several more shouts.

Drustan didn’t even to stop to think about the circumstances of charging into a potentially dangerous area. He simply dropped the brace of deer to the street and ran forward, gripping his quarterstaff firmly in both hands.
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Keelin
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The locals could barely understand her dialect of Elvish, so Keelin ended up facilitating an awkward situation: two elves speaking to each other in Common. Neither her nor the trader she was asking directions from acknowledged the strangeness of it. They each rolled their tongues through the thick, cumbersome human sounds with just enough fluency to do business, then parted. Keelin sneered at Norwood's foppish accents. In conversation, they all focused on her dialect. Better to focus on the dialect in polite society. It would have been rude to stare at, much less ask about, what she was carrying along with her.

At least directly. She could feel their stares from just outside her line of sight, burning into her back. The feathered wings, each as big as she was, slapped against her back with each step wherever they weren't just dragging across the cobbles. The two wings were each severed at the base, no longer bleeding, and tied together with a leather cord so she could hold them slung over her back. They were white, but striped like a bird of prey near the tips of the flight feathers, so they could pass as belonging to a very large bird if needed. Keelin thought she heard someone mumble something about this day getting stranger and stranger, but didn't care enough to investigate.

She entered the limits of the great Norwood village and folded into the crowd headed eastbound toward the agora. At first it was merely crowded, but then traffic slowed to a halt. Keelin waited, tapping her foot on the road, looking up at the spiraling networks of walkways in the trees. When that got boring, and her arm was getting tired from holding the cord and she was fixing for a smoke, she got a bit more agitated. "What's going on?" the hunter asked someone ahead of her. They didn't know. When there was a sound of a large crash followed by a scream, the crowd got antsy and looked like it was about to stampede. Keelin, sensing she was in a bad place, pushed herself against the grain. People cursed at her when she rudely cut past them, forcing a wide berth thanks to the wings slung over her body.

All she wanted was to turn in her bounty, but between her and her destination was an honest-to-gods giant running right towards her just as she broke from the main crowd. Keelin paled.
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Drustan
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Drustan found his progress slowed by the river of citizens fleeing in the opposite direction. Although he wasn't at risk of being pushed back by the crowd, he didn't want to accidentally smash anyone by mistake. Thankfully, most of the elves and humans were still composed enough to notice the massive figure heading in their direction and get out of his way. He reached the market soon after the ruckus had begun and slid to a halt, eyes widening as he took in the sight. Pandemonium had been unleashed on what was normally a serene market scene. Multiple stalls had been crushed into the ground, their wares scattered like rubbish along the walkways. He could count at least a dozen casualties strewn around the area, and while some where still groaning most were terribly still.

The druid had no real words to describe the monstrosity responsible for all of the mayhem. It was crouched in the center of the area, sinuous tail curling back and forth in the air. It almost appeared as if some madman had taken a full-sized drake and nailed sheet of metal to every inch of its body. The thick plates scraped with every movement it made, filling the air with piercing screeches. Drustan simply watched in horror as its massive head snaked forward, metallic jaws clamping shut on a fleeing woman. Her screams were cut off as it clenched its mouth shut, almost effortlessly shearing her in half.

It took a few moments for his horror to fade and realize that this was no normal drake. The joints in its armor did not reveal scales or flesh, but rather magical nodes that glowed with silvery light. Gears chugged within its form, allowing the mechanical monstrosity to move as quickly and nimbly as a living creature. Its eyes were made of giant crystals that swiveled back and forth in their sockets, a unnatural growl reverberating through its body. The giant felt his grip tighten on his quarterstaff as he watched the drag pounce on another fleeing merchant, claws as sharp as swords rending through the man's body as if it were paper. Sigils had been inscribed on the metallic construct, written in a runic alphabet he had never seen before.

This... is an abomination.

Druids revered all life, but they also understood the necessity of death. There was none here. This was wanton slaughter committed by a machine that could have been made for no other purpose. The giant felt his anger stir at the sight and he lifted his staff in both hands, slamming down against the wooden walkway. Even without the power of the earth behind the blow he had all the strength inherent to his massive size, and the metal-banded end easily broke through the planks. Drustan bend down and tore up the board with his bare hands, exposing the soil underneath. The giant ripped out several adjacent pieces of wood, giving him a small area from which he would be able to draw upon Chaon's energy freely. He stepped into the dirt, sighing with contentment as his tattoos came into full contact with the earth and he began to call its power into his body. He would not abandon a single living creature to this mechanical monstrosity.
Edited by Seele, Fri Mar 8, 2013 7:31 pm.
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Keelin
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It wasn't the giant, necessarily, that made Keelin pause. The giant looked like he belonged there, a piece of the scenery, despite his violent actions toward the planked road. Her eye instead homed straight in on the runes etched into the metal plates of a tremendous reptilian golem.

Celestial sigils. A creature animated by celestial magic, right in the middle of Norwood Village, right in front of the building where she was scheduled to meet her contact and turn in the bounty. There was no way Atastalaz was still alive.

Knowing that, Keelin ditched her angel wing trophies and took cover behind a tree as she readied herself. Flicking back one side of her longcoat with her hand revealed a leather baldric holding a pair of weapons together at its corner. The blades had such an unusual shape that they were wrapped with strips of a tough material instead of housed in sheathes. Keelin wrapped her right hand around both handles at the same time, pulling her weapons out through the baldric's loop. She glanced around the tree and saw that the giant had just settled himself onto a spot of torn-up roadway. The dragon-like construct let out a terrible mechanical screech that sent a bladed pain shooting through Keelin's missing eye. Smarting, the hunter propped both blades against the length of her forearm and twisted out of cover.

The creature focused its attention on Keelin as soon as it spotted her in the swiftly dissolving crowd. Not wasting time, the hunter used her free hand to snap a latch on her weapons' covering. Instead of attacking her, the golem merely engaged in a staring contest for a few seconds, apparently decided she was not someone to attack, and slowly rotated to face the giant. It was a problem Keelin had experienced a few times. Unthinking Celestiakin -- of which there were very, very few as most living things in Celestia were sentient -- treated her as a non-enemy by default. Its pause had given the giant a long opening, but it also gave Keelin an opportunity to attack. But even as her off-hand gripped the other handle, pulling the two weapons apart and out of their wrapping, she hadn't a single clue how to fight this thing.

She walked forward, gripping her hook swords loosely at either side of her body. Magical power surged through the weapons' asymmetrical etchings in brief waves. When the mechanikal dragon charged at the giant, Keelin followed after them.
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Drustan
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As the strength flowed up into Drustan's body through the tattoos he dropped his quarterstaff entirely, shrugging his left shoulder to dislodge his greatbow. He had already strung the ranged weapon for the visit into Norwood Village, so it was ready to be fired. The druid had made the bow himself, a combination of several types of wood that had been laminated together to give it extra strength. With his muscles alone he could barely pull back the string on the greatbow, but the power he received from the ground made it a simple task. Drustan drew one of the arrows from his quiver in a smooth motion, notching the projectile on the string and pulling it back until the fletching brushed his cheek. It was closer in size to a typical javelin, six feet of polished wood with a broad arrowhead and fletched with feathers taken from a roc. With all of the patience of a hunter he waited to fire, searching for the perfect opportunity.

It presented itself a few seconds later when the magitech dragon turned to stare at one of the few individuals left in the marketplace. Drustan barely glanced at the elfin maiden, seizing on this lapse of attention from the monstrosity. From this position he could see a narrow sliver between the plates of metal on its upper shoulder, a mere glimpse of a magical node visible underneath. With a soft grunt he released the string, sending the arrow rocketing forward. It slid perfectly into the gap, slamming into the drake's innards and shattering something delicate-sounding within. The projectile splintered from the force of impact, shards of wood flying in every direction. The light from the node immediately dampened, and the drakes left foreleg shuddered in a facsimile of pain.

The artificial drake might have been interested in the woman before his attack, but now its full attention was devoted to Drustan. The druid fit another arrow to the bow as it charged forward, calmly sighting down the shaft of the bow and letting loose a second missile. He had aimed at one of its multifaceted eyes, but the abomination shifted its head to one side so that it smashed into a solid sheet of metal. The arrow shattered , barely leaving a dent in the plate's surface. Drustan drew as much power as his body could hold from the earth in a rush, filling him with strength and energy before moving off of the patch of bare soil. His tattoos could store a finite amount of power that should help keep him alive until he was able to recharge. The drake arrived an instant later, ripping at the spot with both forelimbs and digging deep gouges in the earth. The giant scooped up his quarterstaff as he retreated, his long strides eating up the distance and allowing him to stay ahead of the drake.
Edited by Drustan, Fri Mar 8, 2013 10:19 pm.
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Keelin
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As Keelin ran after the battle, she got an idea. The movements of the drake and the giant's successful shot both exposed some extensive cordage and magical nodes that she couldn't even begin to understand. What she did know was that destroying them would be key to bringing down this monstrosity. And with the golem treating her as a non-enemy or possibly even an ally, she guessed she had at most one free attack against it. The hunter planned to make it count.

There was a short window of opportunity between the time when the golem stopped its charge and when it resumed. Keelin came up alongside the drake and jumped as high as she could. The hook of one sword worked its way into a groove between plates. She grit her teeth, swinging her other hook sword up and pushing her whole body onto the array of spines that made up its back. The construct started to run after the giant, jostling Keelin around. She managed a foothold and swung wildly with one of her swords, searching for a crack. The hook hissed against metal, not even making a scratch. Electricity surged across the blade after the hunter barked a command in an ancient language.

She realized something important: in her current position, the sword she had hooked against one of its body plates was putting so much stress on the plate that it was pried upward, exposing the sensitive circuitry below. Keelin slashed beneath this plate with her free hook sword, feeling it tear and rip into the tubes inside. Wires snapped and nodes popped. She could have done more damage but lost her grip and fell off the wildly charging golem. It was moving more haphazardly now, less in control of its limbs than before. That was something, at least, she thought as she rubbed her badly strained shoulder and dusted dirt off her body from the fall.
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Drustan
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As long as each of his strides might be, Drustan's legs were still shorter than that of the metallic drake. He was also forced to maneuver around the piles of wreckage that scattered the marketplace, while the monster in pursuit simply barreled through the debris. The giant managed to get his greatbow back over one shoulder in mid-sprint, which allowed the golem to close the gap even more. Drustan listened closely to its footsteps, not moving until he heard it lunge forwards in a leap. The druid dropped down to the ground, grunting as his sternum struck the wooden planks and knocked the air out of his lungs. It had the desired effect: the mechanical contraption soared by overhead, unable to arrest its forward momentum and redirect the attack. It crashed into a line of stalls with an angry roar, tearing its way free of the wood and cloth and turning back towards the giant.

Drustan eyes widened as he saw that the drake had a rider. No, not a rider; the woman from earlier was perched on the creature's back, a blade in either hand. As he watched she pried back one of its armored plates with one sword, stabbing the other deep into its body. She wrenched it around several times before being dislodged from her perch, thrown from the drake's back. It roared again, but there was no missing that its movements were far jerkier and less smooth. Its armor might be nigh-impenetrable, but its inner mechanisms were clearly much more susceptible to damage. The abomination shuddered and turned its head towards the girl, its jaws opening to reveal an impressive mouthful of serrated teeth.

Before it could strike he leapt forward, both hands firmly wrapped around his staff. Although it might look like plain wood, Drustan had carved every pattern and whorl on the polearm himself, imbuing it with strength all the while. He slammed the shaft into the drake's nearest eye, the bands of steel on the end striking the center of the faceted gem. With the strength of the earth behind the blow, the jewel didn't stand a chance. With an explosion of silver sparks it shattered, peppering the giant's forearms with needle-sharp slivers. He drew in a deep, painful breath and backed away hurriedly, but not quite fast enough. The drake lashed out with its nearest wing, catching him full in the torso and throwing him back across the market.

Drustan landed heavily, rolling several yards before coming to a halt against the roots of one of the massive trees that the village had been built around. He sat up woozily, head spinning and his entire body feeling like one giant bruise. Thankfully, the walkway did not extend all the way flush to the trunk, leaving a few inches of bare soil nearest the bark. He thrust both heels into the dirt, drawing up more energy and speaking for the first time since the confrontation began. "Norwood, I need you." The drake was advancing towards him, but the giant made no attempt to move off of the narrow strip of earth. Right now he needed every bit of energy that Chaon could provide him. Just a few more seconds... The golem was moving slowly, clearly cautious of the preternatural strength he had demonstrated a few seconds earlier. A stream of what looked like molten silver was dribbling out of the ruins of its fragmented eye, hissing wherever it touched the ground. The bulk of the drake hid the majority of the marketplace from view, but Drustan hoped that the elf from earlier had managed to escape.
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Keelin
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Keelin tested her strained shoulder by rotating it a few times. It was painful, but intact. Good enough for her. The hunter stalked after the fight of two giants once again after a quick reappraisal showed it wasn't over. A trail of spattered silver led her eyes back to one of the trees in the agora, where the forest giant was making a stand with his heels awkwardly shoved into the gap beneath the walkway. Keelin flowered her swords, partly in an attempt to knock off some of the molten silver from one of her hook swords before it solidified. She slunk up behind the drake-like golem. It was too focused on the giant, still. Its tail dragged along the ground. Well, here went nothing.

"Hold it still!" Keelin roared as she leaped, sprinted up the length of the drake's tail, her body low and her swords coming out to steady any step that didn't quite take. She made it nearly up to the base of the tail before it really started thrashing. Keelin fell prone, jamming the sharpened butts of her swords into plate cracks to anchor herself. When she had an opportunity, she pushed herself up and ran a short distance. Her boot caught a slope and she slid, but this time it was toward the place she wanted to be, at least. Hooks fell inside the array of shifting cracks and plates that protected the drake's sensitive wing-joint. Keelin scrambled for leverage, her feet dangling over the ground, but managed to swing her leg up and onto the bladed wing, shredding her trouser and a bit of her leg in the process. Probably not the greatest place to be standing, she thought as she tore into the joint, watching liquid silver bubble out from under the armor. As the wing fell limp, Keelin jumped away.

Another limb down. Well, if they couldn't kill it, they could at least make it totally incapable of moving, she supposed.
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Drustan
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Drustan's eyes widened as he heard a shouted command to keep the mechanical drake in one place. He bellowed a response without thinking, not even knowing who he was conversing with. "Hold it still? Are you kidding?" The giant growled and set his feet firmly, heels digging deeper into the soil and drawing as much power up from the earth as his body could hold. Strength flowed through his frame, just in time: the contraption surged forward with its jaw agape. The only reason he was able to react in time was because they had done enough damage to the mechanical monstrosity that its movements were far jerkier and slower. His hands shot out, catching the top and bottom jaw of the drake before they could snap closed. He tightened his grip, grimacing as its teeth dug into his skin and ground against the bone. The pain was incredible, transforming the lower half of either arm into a white-hot ball of agony.

The druid growled and pushed with all of his might, straining to keep its jaws apart. He could hear gears and other mechanisms straining as it attempted to bite him in half. However, whatever foul energy powered this beast paled in comparison to the strength of the earth. Drustan managed to keep it locked in place for several long seconds, blood running freely from the deep cuts on his fingers and palm. His arms ached from the effort of harnessing so much strength at once, but Chaon blessed him with stamina as well, refreshing his fortitude and allowing him to keep the drake under control. He wasn't sure why the elfin woman was assisting him in this fight, but he felt a surge of appreciation for the stranger. The giant wasn't sure he could defeat this creature on his own.

It wasn't long before the drake relented, clearly distracted as it fell back from the giant. He caught a glimpse of the woman with her blades sunk deep into the beast's armor at the joint of one wing, earning another splash of the silver fluid that served as its blood. She sprang away with commendable nimbleness, avoiding any retaliation from the beast. Before it could focus entirely on her there was an odd, whispery noise from above. Drustan was familiar with the sound and didn't even bother to look, charging straight towards the mechanical creature. At the same time there was a series of soft thumps from the canopy above, accompanied by several projectiles slamming into the drake's back. It recoiled from this unexpected angle of attack, neck arching back to glare upwards with its remaining eye.

During his years of training in the area, Drustan had developed a relationship with all of the beings of the forest, even those that were not flesh-and-blood creatures. He had communed with the greater elemental that reigned over the entire region of Imythess, the spirit that epitomized Norwood. Now that he had asked it for aid, the elemental had responded by sending an avatar of its favor. The flower-like creature was hanging from one of the lower boughs like a spider, six vines wrapped around the branch to support its weight. It turned its stamen towards the drake's remaining eye, sending out several more thorny missiles in an attempt co completely blind it. Its target moved out of the way in time, but by then Drustan was close enough to strike. He slammed his shoulder into the drake's foreleg that he had already weakened with an arrow, knocking the limb out from underneath it. With an angry bellow it collapsed, smashing into the wooden walkway and breaking several of the planks. The giant bounced off of its steely hide, snatching up one of the broken boards and immediately beginning to beat it over the head with the length of wood.
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Keelin
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The drake's silver blood was molten hot and painful wherever it trickled down onto her sword handles and her hands. She had major difficulty keeping a grip on her weapons with only some misguided sense of stubborn 'discipline.' Keelin landed on the walkway, but her second step was a pronounced limp as her mind finally caught up with the condition of her leg. The inner side of it was badly shredded and covered in blood. She slowly turned back to check the condition of the battle, gritting her teeth and trying to push down the pain. Luckily her and the giant had gotten some additional help. Sharp thorns rained from the sky like bullets. Heartened by the sight, Keelin did her best to run on her injured leg and rejoin the fight.

Her opportunity came when the giant slammed the drake's whole weight down on the walkway. Keelin skidded to a stop and was nearly thrown by the explosion of force that was enough to splinter road planks. To mitigate this, she bent down on her uninjured leg, pressing her blistered fingertips into the road. While doing this Keelin located a new place to attack during this opportunity. That whiplike tail was certainly out of the way of both the giant's attacks and the thorns from above, and while disabling it still wasn't making any progress on killing the damned creature, it would at least remove yet another means for it to attack. It was formed of multiple segmented rings that, when relaxed, didn't do a very good job of covering those internal mechanisms. Her hooks cut through them like butter, and this time she could watch them at work tearing apart tubes and fraying wires. Its movements became a mere twitch, then stopped altogether. Keelin kept her hooks pointed downward, hoping no more of that molten silver blood would flow down and make it even more painful to hold them.
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Drustan
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The barrage of blows from the broken board did little to actually harm the drake, although it left a series of dents across the armor on its skull. It snapped repeatedly at Drustan, but he was always careful to back away when it prepared to strike and managed to avoid its jaws entirely. Eventually he saw an opening and lunged forward, thrusting the splintered end of the plank into its empty eye socket. He had no idea what remained to damage within the gap, but he felt the board rip through something far more yielding than its metallic flesh. A surge of silver liquid splashed out of the socket, flecks of the burning material dotting his hands. The druid backed away quickly, shaking his fingers to try and dislodge the searing substance.

The elf had been hard at work as well, using her swords to cave through the drake's tail. They had managed to do an impressive amount of damage to the mechanical monstrosity; with one leg and wing disabled it was having difficulty rising just rising back to its feet, internal servos and gears whirring loudly as it struggled to continue the fight. The druid stared at the contraption for several long seconds before turning and walking back to the bare patch of earth near the roots of the tree, examining his torn hands. They had been completely shredded from grappling with the drake's jaws, blood flowing freely from the deep gashes.

He grunted and knelt down, thrusting the injuries down into the soil and pulling power directly into the injured flesh. He wasn't very skilled at healing, but he could definitely knit the wounds closed so that he restore full flexibility to the digits. He could continue pummeling the mechanical drake, but it didn't seem like it would have any effect whatsoever. Drustan planned on restoring his fingers and using his greatbow to completely disable the creature one arrow at a time. It shouldn't take him much longer than a minute to regain that level of functionality, and it didn't seem like the drake would be capable of posing much of a threat to him in the meantime.
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Keelin
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Keelin caught a glimpse of the terrible condition the giant's hands were in and winced. She didn't blame him for pulling out of the fight. Now it was her turn to take the golem's attention. The hunter backed up, giving herself ample room before shouting something in the language of celestials. Struggling to push itself up, the golem turned its head toward Keelin. The sigils etched across its armor flashed gold for a moment, processing the command. She wasn't sure if it worked. It propped itself up on its gushing tail-stub and one remaining wing, slowly turning. Keelin took several more steps back as the metal golem's broken shadow fell over her. The whole thing was mangled into a grisly horror of a thing, a machine acting like it was alive despite the frayed wires, gushing exposed tubes and warped or dangling armor plates.

Just as it raised its head to lunge at her, arrows flew in all directions from the trees. Some crumpled against the construct's armor, but most hit the delicate internal mechanisms that made it go. Keelin frowned. "About goddamn time!" she roared at the trees. Norwood guardsmen moved to surround the whole block where the destructive battle had occurred. Hidden snipers continued to shoot with remarkable accuracy. The attacks made its movements even jerkier and its threat as an enemy lower, but it clung to its fake-life and refused to stop moving. Keelin growled something offensive in her incomprehensible dialect of Elvish and flowered her hooks once again.
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Drustan
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Drustan kept his eyes on the drake as he worked on healing his hands, taking the power straight from the earth and directly into the gashes. It was still functionally sporadically, managing to gain its feet and start limping towards the elfin woman that had helped him battle it thus far The druid didn't move, knowing that restoring his fingers to full functionality wwould allow him to do more to help her survive than blindly charging forward within range of its teeth and talons. Still, he was starting to grow worried by the time the contraption had closed to striking distance near the female. Norwood's avatar continued to shoot spiked thorns into its main mass, but the natural missiles were not strong or accurate enough to do any real damage to the monstrosity.

Thankfully, the actual defenders of the village showed up moments later to defend their home. Arrows flew in from every direction. Many of them ineffectually struck the plates of armor that covered its frame, but some managed to slip through gaps in the carapace and damage its internal mechanisms. They only grew more accurate as they continued to fire, finding the weak spots more often than not. The drake bucked back and forth in a vain attempt to avoid the shots, but the snipers were more than capable of continuing their barrage. Drustan left his fingers deep in the dirt, trusting that the elves could finish mopping up the threat without his assistance. Only when he felt that the cuts were completely mended did he pull his hands out of the ground, carefully brushing the soil off his hands near the roots.

"Thank you, Chaon, for your strength and kindness" He felt a brief pulse of recognition from the planet, a surge of emotions that could not be described in words. He sensed recognition and appreciation and happiness before he stepped off of the bare dirt, cutting off his connection with the earth. He gathered up his quarterstaff, walking over to where the drake was struggling to rise. One of its back legs wasn't working properly now, the entire limb limp. Drustan held the very end of his staff, stopping as far away as possible from he creature while still within range of the polearm. He then proceeded to slam the iron end of the staff forward, knocking it against its remaining eye. The gem shattered with a retort, leaving it completely blind. It roared in impotent rage, but there was nothing it could do. The giant backed away, sitting down heavily and watching as the archers continued to fill the drake with arrow after arrow.
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Keelin
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Keelin backed off, letting the Norwood guardsmen fold into the fight. Her eye still scanned over the golem's broken body, searching for a way to end its life. It was blind and could barely move, but she was most interested in killing it. A guardsman with a long spear stabbed into the tangle of the drake's chest repeatedly, searching for a kill point. He had to dart away when the drake lunged at him -- forest elves were nimble like that. Keelin peered into the gaping crevice in the golem and spotted something moving inside. Beating. "Hey! It has a heart! Look!" She pointed and the spear-wielders followed her indication. What commenced after that was probably one of the most drawn-out kills Keelin had ever seen. Even after getting stabbed repeatedly, numerously in the heart, that drake just wouldn't die. Keelin took this time to whisper the incantation for a spell. The shredded parts of her leg glowed, holy magic flowing into the wounds to draw the flesh back together. It wasn't pretty and didn't do a very good job, but it made things much less painful for her.

Finally, after the drake was wallowing in a puddle of its own silver blood, barely able to do anything but screech in agony and twitch its barely-functioning limbs, its heart shredded to bits and its internal mechanisms almost totally severed, it fell limp and didn't get up. The celestial sigils covering its armor dimmed to nothing. There was clattering and the sound of heavy objects falling over from inside the nearest building: a hollowed-out tree containing the shop where her original contact lived. Half of the tree had a hole torn through it, so it was listing and dangerously close to falling against the other buildings. A handsome elvish man came stumbling out of the front entrance, clutching his throat. Blood caked between his fingers but wasn't flowing freely. He stopped in the middle of the street, where just a few meters to his right the golem lie dead and surrounded.

"Gods-[removed]ing-dammit, Keelin!" he shouted, irises blazing red-orange. An infernal growl subtly echoed beneath his human-voice.

Keelin started. She hadn't seen the man come out. "How are you still alive? I kind of assumed it was going after you."

"You bloody think?" The elf took away his hand, revealing a sight so gruesome Keelin had to look away. His throat had been torn out, alongside much of the flesh on the left side of his shoulder and chest; the connected arm kind of just hung uselessly there. The man called Atastalaz marched through the carnage in a huff, looking over the dead body of the drake-shaped golem. "Who killed it? No, seriously, I want to know who did all the damage to this [removed] [removed]piece. You need to give them a [removed]ing medal. I'll fund it. I'll fund all the medals."

Keelin motioned to Drustan with one of her swords. "He did most of the damage. These guys nailed the killing blow."

"You!" Atastalaz roared, pointing at the giant with his one free hand, forcing the elf to uncover his gaping throat-hole for a moment in the process. "Come with me! We all need to talk in private. Hell, let's go outside the village. I'm not comfortable here anymore. Keelin, where are Jagi'riel's wings?" The hunter nodded down the road, where the pair of severed angel wings lie trampled and battered on the ground. Atastalaz growled before saying, "Fine. I don't care anymore. Just follow me, chuckle[removed]s."
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Drustan
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Drustan watched with a calm expression as a spear-toting guard closed on the drake, using the extended reach of the weapons to poke at it without fear of retaliation. More joined the first, and with the help of the elfin woman they managed to locate the power source that had made the mechanical rake such a threat. The druid let out a sigh of relief when the abomination finally fell to the ground, the silver light fading from its interior. He stood up ponderously, using the quarterstaff like a crutch to help him to his feet. He had drawn a huge amount of power from the earth in a short amount of time, which was exhausting. He wanted to do nothing more than to find a quiet spot in the forest to lie down and take a week-long nap.

However, it seemed like fate had other ideas in mind for his immediate future. A blood-coated man started shouting at him, demanding that the giant accompany him. Drustan stared down at the much smaller man for several seconds, his mien completely unreadable. Eventually he sighed and nodded, turning to look up towards the tree and gesturing. The avatar of Norwood responded immediately, scuttling down the side of the trunk like a spider and across the ground. Once it reached the druid's body it crawled up his leg, settling on his back underneath the cloak and wrapping its vine-like limbs around his torso.

"Very well." Drustan followed after the elf without looking back at the remains of the contraption. Destroying it had been the proper thing to do. Druids served life, and the drake had been the antithesis of everything he revered and sought to protect. He was not sure what this elf with the unusual eyes wanted from him, but it probably had something to do with the events of the last quarter-hour. The druid nodded to the female with the odd, hook-shaped swords as they approached. "Thank you, ma'am. Your assistance in eliminating that blight is very much appreciated. I am Drustan. " He followed the pair of elves towards the outskirts of the village. his long legs meant that he had to move at a snail's pace so he wouldn't outdistance the pair, but Drustan didn't mind taking his time. He only paused to look at where he had dropped the deer carcasses when the pandemonium began. He was unsurprised to see that only a single one of the four corpses remained, and that one had been trampled to mush that even a starving dog wouldn't touch.

I really, really dislike cities...
Edited by Drustan, Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:04 am.
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