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| Call and Answer; [P] Ikenna | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Wed Feb 18, 2015 3:09 am (1,308 Views) | |
| Ari | Wed Feb 18, 2015 3:09 am Post #1 |
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Eyes turned. Wood creaked under the steps of a warrior in full armor. The painted lamellar plates were laced with soot, scorchmarks and stripes of dried blood fresh enough to hold a bit of their redness. She carried a flag of Nalai over her shoulder that was almost as large as she was. The pole was so scratched that the metal could no longer shine, and the flag itself was ragged and scorched at the edges, peppered with arrow-holes in the middle. The stench of smoke and corpses lingered on her. In the Istan City slums, a plague of makeshift buildings spilling from the ancient walls, she stuck out. Crowds of people moving down the walkway parted around Ari like water to a stone, staring as they passed. Her antlered helmet and metal faceplate never stopped facing forward, no matter what questions or shouts or demands were made of her by strangers. A particularly unwise youth tried to grab her by her tattered half-cape, but she grabbed the cloth at the base and yanked back, hard, leaving a piece in his hands and sending him a clear message. The Matandra clan was close, according to the old man she asked directions from. They were well-known in these parts. The patchwork complex was where they were, he said in stammering Istani. Spread out around there. Ochieng, Uzoma, more. Ari spotted the buildings further down the walkway, propped on another layer of roughshod, stilted platforms. It was quieter in these parts than other areas of the slums. She tilted her chin up and caught the scent of arakureb on the wind. The largest concentration of buildings was just ahead. Ari stopped a short distance from the front door of the Matandra complex. Squaring her shoulders, she whipped her flag off her shoulder and let the butt of the pole slam against the ground. The warrior sucked in a deep breath and gave a shout that was unbecoming of her quiet personality: "Matandras!" The winds created by the high Istan City walls caught her flag and half-cape and, in the silence between her words, whipped audibly. "The Nalai archipelago, shattered by civil war, calls you to arms!" She said nothing more. Simply waited for a response, body tensed. A part of her hoped that Ikenna was not home. Melati wanted arakureb, as many of them as Ari could muster. She would take the older Matandras to war. She did not want to be the one responsible for introducing Ikenna to one of life's unique horrors, even if it meant not seeing him for months -- or ever, if she was slain on the field. Better her than both of them. |
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| Ikenna | Wed Feb 18, 2015 4:16 am Post #2 |
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A long moment of relative silence would pass before the hand-made gate to the Matandra section opened slowly, and only a bit, with a smooth black hand with white-painted short nails wrapped around its frame. From around the door a head with bright white eyes would emerge, a girl about Ikenna's age, arakurebian. Her hair, unlike Ikenna's, was very long and would have easily reached to her thighs if she was standing up straight instead of cocked off to the side. The thick nature of arakurebian hair made it look particularly big as it went to the ground. The girl was confused at first by the visitor's appearance, fully armored and seeming ready for war, a woman hidden beneath it. "Nalaian?" She parroted, trying to get a feel for it, as if it was familiar, "Call to arms? Why does Nalaian sound familiar?" Shortly another head would appear from behind the door, above the first, though accompanied by no hands. The face was the same as the one below it, another girl with very long hair and bright white eyes. Twins. Unlike her sister, this girl's expression seemed excited to see the Nalaian, and a little devious. "Nalaian!" The girl chimed, "You know, this must be the girl that Uzoma--" "Oh!" The lower head exclaimed before vanishing with the top one, the top one having elicited a a sharp, "Oof!" of pain before vanishing. Shortly after that the wooden gate would open wide and inwards to let the visitor in, "Come in! Come in, come in, come in! We've been wondering if you would show up!" With the door wide open, the twins would be standing at either side, one rubbing her stomach a little with her sleeveless right arm and smiling nervously, the one who had gotten struck there by her sister. She wore only leather over her stomach, but her left arm was covered from shoulder to finger-tips in steel, with a bit of steel covering her chest and the vital organs that resided in her rib cage. She also wore steel greaves that stopped at her knees and a leather combat skirt. Her twin was similarly armored, though with silvery drake scale armor rather than steel plate. Her right arm was covered instead, leaving the left arm sleeveless. Similarly her chest was covered, but unlike her sister so was her stomach, continuing down to her thighs more like a battle dress of scales, with boots going up to her knees. "I am Larato and this is my sister Sanaa, we are cousins of Ikenna! You must be Ari!" Larato said happily, the girl with the scaled armor, "He just recently got distracted from being distracted by thoughts of you. We will take you to him, he could use a break from Uzoma's training, then we can take you to Ochieng. You are in luck, he normally is not here for long, but given Ikenna's recent, well, developments he could not help but stay!" The girls giggled exchanged glances and giggled, something playing in their minds. Once Ari stepped past the gate, sounds would burst to life, the floor would have a distinct and disjointed rumble to it. "--Leave until I am convinced you cannot kill yourself with that thing!" Uzoma's voice would burst from down the hall, muffled somewhat but loud enough to be clear. It was followed shortly by a series of clanging sounds, laughter, and cheers. "Chipo enchanted the Matandra Complex so we wouldn't disturb the neighbors too much. I think you can tell why" Sanaa explained, "Chipo is our grandmother, Ochieng's wife. She is a powerful caster, only a caster sadly, but today she is at the Academy researching into something peculiar. So sorry you missed her." "It has been a week! I strongly doubt it was ever more dangerous than you throwing adamantine at me!" Ikenna's voice would follow shortly. "Oh get over it, that was years ago and I thought it was steel!" Uzoma retorted. "It weighs a lot more than steel!" Came Ike's complain. The twins laughed again, trying to stifle it but failing miserably. Several doors down, a bit of a walk until they got to the right door, exchanging a glance with each other first, then smirks to Ari before pushing the door open, revealing about a half dozen different Matandras, four of whom were arakureb, one who was a green orc female, with smooth skin, and another who was a human, male, with heavily scarred flesh and a missing left eye. All but two of the Matandras were against walls, cheering and laughing at the sight of Uzoma lobbing steel balls, about a foot in diameter, at Ikenna. Ikenna's was fully decked out in his standard favorite equipment, best hide leather and twin shields. What was definitely different was that he had a new steel component to his outfit, a large scorpion tail coming from his lower back. Well, it wasn't actually steel, itself, but rather steel-covered and with a spike at the end of it. "Ari's finally here!" Larato called out to the room as loud as she could, and it worked beautifully. "Ari?!" Ikenna's head perked up and he looked to the door, his orange eyes wide and his tail drooping behind him like it was trying to hide. His shielded arms lowered to his side, a nervous look came upon his face. "Concentrate!" Uzoma threw another steel ball, aimed at Ikenna's shield, and knocked the young Matandra a yard back and on his ass for not focusing in the middle of a training session. First Ike, then the ball, hit the ground with loud thuds on the wooden floor, neither one of them seriously injured, but Ike was definitely winded by the impact. Everybody except Uzoma and Ikenna in the Matandra family burst into laughter, though Uzoma did have a smirk on her face as she looked at Ari. |
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| Ari | Wed Feb 18, 2015 5:32 am Post #3 |
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The twin arakureb guessed that she, as a representative from Nalai, was Ikenna's partner Ari. The warrior inclined her head to confirm, but said nothing more. Instead she followed the twins inside, keeping her flag propped on her shoulder. The difference in sound from the outside and inside was alarming and made Ari glance around. By the time she got used to it, one of the voices mixed in with the chaos hit her as familiar. All of a sudden her face beneath her metal faceplate felt warmer, and she swallowed nervously. The door opened. At a glance, as was her instinct, Ari took in the sights of the Matandra family: the arakureb and non-arakureb circled around Ikenna and one of his family members. Ikenna was distracted by her entrance and clobbered by a steel ball. The sight, and resulting uproar of laughter from the family, sparked a sudden and intense anger that burned in Ari's core. She stepped forward, slipping her hands over one another so her gauntlet pinned the cloth of her flag to the metal pole itself. Even though she wore a katana and shortsword on her hip and a bow with quiver diagonally across her back, Ari made no move for her true weapons and instead gripped the heavy and unwieldy flagpole as she might hold a glaive. The steel ball that had knocked Ikenna onto his ass rolled in front of Ari's feet. She bent mid-stride to scoop it up in her free hand. A couple paces later, the Nalaian stood between Ikenna and what she presumed to be his mother, if what she knew about his mother had any truth to it. Absentmindedly, almost threateningly, she tossed the steel ball up and down in her palm. Then she hurled the sphere straight at Uzoma's face without warning. She knew it was unlikely to hit, but hopefully it got the message across. Standing tall, Ari slammed the butt of her flagpole against the ground in an attempt to silence the family. "I see you people are in dire need of entertainment." Keeping her attention on everyone around her, particularly Uzoma, Ari turned her body just enough to offer Ikenna her hand. If he accepted, she would lock forearms and pull him up. "You could keep humiliating Ikenna and call it training, but that's surely getting old. Fight me instead." This was not what she was here for. Ari's quiet fury was backed by numerous stories of Uzoma's horrible treatment of Ikenna. Right now she wanted nothing more than to deliver even a fraction of that humiliation back onto Ikenna's mother using any means necessary. |
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| Ikenna | Wed Feb 18, 2015 9:58 am Post #4 |
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"<Gods! Damn!>" Ikenna coughed in fortunately shallow breaths as he spent a moment writhing on the ground, keeping his elbow close to his chest. Both quickly faded, but still he felt more comfortable staying on the ground. No bones were broken, but he was definitely going to be feeling sore for a while after that one. Still though, not as bad as the adamantine. The metal shield he had managed to absorb most of the impact from the blow, just as Uzoma had intended, but it still hurt. The price for jumping every time somebody said Ari's name. Uzoma swayed to the side and raised her hand to catch the ball in a lazy motion, as easily as if the ball had been made of leather and stuffed with straw. To her the steel was nothing, which is why she used it to throw at Ikenna rather than anything more threatening. With the force that she put behind each throw, at worse her son would have suffered a fracture if he had let his guard down. What she had hit him with was just a reminder not to forget what was happening just because he felt surprised. What was a bit unexpected, though, was the way that Ari, the Nalaian girl, had responded in his defense. Noted how she helped him back to his feet. "Ikenna has been talking about training, again." Uzoma noted aloud, lowering the ball to her side and just letting her arm hang next to her lazily for a moment while she addressed her father, "Is it really his version of stories? I did not talk so much about my upbringing." "He is young, he yearns for adventure, and such a childhood he knows to be alien to the world. When he gets more stories it will be but a footnote." Ochi said, his voice big and low. Ochieng Matandra was big, six and two and barrel-chested, weighing more than two hundred pounds and a lot faster and smarter than he looked. His spiked hair was shorter than Ike's, with streaks of wait starting to spread through it like a slow infection. His eyes were pure red, and his smile big and toothy. He looked Ari's armor over approvingly as she "So this is the girl that sets him aflame, who comes to a home in full armor, with weapons at her side? I approve fully! They can get married right away!" "If you want to fight me, then strip." Uzoma said, "I would not want to break your things sparring, especially if you think you can provide challenge." 'No!" Ikenna shouted once his mind caught up with what was happening, the oxygen finally having returned to his brain, "No! No! No-No! No sparring anywhere near the slums, are you insane-- well yes, you are Matandras, but the slums can barely take training! Chipo's magic can barely take training! And this is truly training, Ari, not humiliation. Humiliation with this family is roping one another up naked and hanging them off the side of the slums with an hour's worth of paralytic in their systems." "A splendid idea!" Uzoma called out with a big smile on her face, "If I win the spar, I will do just that. With his newly grown tail, that I have been making sure he can use without stabbing himself in the head repeatedly, will make it far more easy than simply hanging him like laundry. You want to defend Ikenna's honor after all, right?" "It was once, I poked myself once and I did not even break the--" Ikenna stopped suddenly and remembered that he had a new-found appendage growing out of his body that he wasn't sure how to explain to Ari. He suspected she would accept it as being a new part of him, considering her alternate form of the Painted Mantis, but still there was doubt hanging in his mind, "Please, Ari. Instead of fighting can we please just go, my home is literally across the hall. I want to speak with you like we promised, try to explain things further if need be about-- about everyone and everything." Ikenna stopped and put the shields on his back where they belonged, atop their mountings, before he gestured around the room with both arms and, unwittingly, with his large metal-covered tail. "Did he just gesture at all of us? With his tail?" The orcish Matandra asked, her voice deep and husky. "That he did." Ochieng responded with a deep, resonating chuckle, "That he did." "Ari seems intent on fighting, and I suggest we give her that so she feels sated." Uzoma said, her smile dropping as she pointed to Ari with the steel ball still in hand, "Either way I still accept the challenge, and expect no disappointments from the girl who thinks she can protect Ikenna. Last real fight I had was Dhakada, and that insect scurried away as he always does." |
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| Ari | Wed Feb 18, 2015 3:04 pm Post #5 |
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"You must think highly of me if you believe this is purely a matter of honor." It was a common misconception, one that was occasionally dangerous to Ari's enemies. Her grandparents in Nalai had worked very hard to clean up the Painted Mantis' image -- her image. Now when people heard her soft but curt words, they thought she was refined. When they saw her quick and brutal movements, they thought she was merciful. When they saw her move and act with the unfailing dignity that came from an inhuman lack of shame and perhaps an overblown sense of pride, they thought she was honorable. She was none of those things. Right now she was pissed off, wanted revenge, and was hellbent on preventing Uzoma from carrying out her insane literal interpretation of Ikenna's joking suggestion. Nevertheless, she waited just long enough to listen to Ikenna's pleas -- but it was Uzoma's little addition at the end that made Ari's hands clench into trembling fists. Her voice was as calm as ever despite that. "We can speak after I save you from cruel humiliation. Indeed, I must speak to the Matandra family as a whole." Ari slid her bow and quiver off her back, set them aside, and did the same for the katana and shortsword. With her back to Ikenna, she opened her arms. "Undo the straps hidden beneath the armor." Ari helped him loosen the straps until she could slide them off piecewise. Though the Painted Armor was an important Nalaian artifact, she let it fall to the ground like so much trash. The last thing she removed was her helmet and faceplate. Ari was ethnically half Nalaian and half Istani-Balefiren, a fact that was clear from her facial features and skin tone. No one but presumably Uzoma had seen her before -- though Ari had been too injured by Dhakada to have clear memories of her from that time. Beneath her armor she wore a simple dark green robe, loose trousers, and sandals, and she was quick to ditch the robe and sandals. Bloodstained bandages were wrapped around her chest and one shoulder. The blood wasn't bright crimson, at least. There were a few fresh scars on her midriff and arms as well. She picked up the flag and quite simply disappeared. It was not a teleportation. Uzoma would find no one emerging from the shadows behind her to land an easy opener. She was invisible. Ari remained in place for a heartbeat or two, keeping her knees soft and breathing steady. Then she began to creep forward, her bare feet not even making the faintest sound against the wood floor. Her heart raced and she let her mind, just this once, plunge into fantasies of predator and prey. Palm leaves and tree-ferns and blood-red flowers tinged the edge of her imagination. Ari crouched down as low as she could go about 10 feet in front of Uzoma, eyes hard on the old arakureb. In the second just before Ari put her palm to the ground, she became visible again. Then a wall of writhing, wickedly barbed insectoid appendages violently burst from the ground about a foot behind where Uzoma was standing. They would home toward the arakureb for their whole ten-foot length if they couldn't plunge into her body immediately. Ari darted toward the wall of the room as soon as her attack began to carry out, but became invisible again as soon as the insectoid appendages reached their full length. ...
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| Ikenna | Wed Feb 18, 2015 7:00 pm Post #6 |
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"You know I think highly of you," Ikenna said his words still worried about the turn of events, but he stopped his worried tone and resigned himself to what was about to happen. Ikenna could not stop "Yet this seems like it is going to be unavoidable." "Be a man, take the woman's armor for her!" The one-eyed man said, though he meant no disrespect by his words, the tone of his voice and choice of his words always managed to strike just the wrong chords with Ike, which he knew and exploited maliciously. Though his skin was tanned by the sun, his facial structure and distinct non-Istani accent made it clear he had married into the family. "One day I will watch you burn, old man." Ikenna glared at the scarred man, though his tone was but a mockery of an honest threat and he had begun work on Ari's armor as she requested. "Perhaps," The man shrugged, a smug smile on his face. He barely seemed old enough to be a father to the twins, "But today you de-armor the woman and show her to your family!" "Shortly before the slums come tumbling down around our ears." Ike said, getting the straps as she helped him find them. What did not help was when his tail was trying to mimic the movements, reaching over his shoulder to poke at the armor with its spike as if it had a mind of its own, which Ike treated as such, slapping the armored appendage much to the entertainment of the present Matandras, "Gah! No, tail, stop-- stop helping!" Despite the tail's interference the armor was off and fallen to the ground within moments, Ike managed control of it enough to keep it out of the way. For a moment the Matandras went silent, seeing Ari truly for the first time as she removed her robes and sandals. "Are you a fool?" The scarred man shouted at Ikenna, being the first to break the silence with an angry-sounding tone to his voice at the audacity of the Matandra, "Kiss her before a fight!" The man's words still struck that familiar chord that made Ikenna naturally dislike him, but the arakureb stopped and considered the words for a moment. While he may not have liked Amador, he could not deny the idea, though Ike would be loathe to admit Amador's suggestion had anything to do with it. "<Gods, please let this be the right choice.>" Before the fight began, Ike grabbed Ari first by the shoulders to get her attention, then moved his hands to her waist before bring her body closer to his and putting his lips against her for a long, deep kiss. He wasn't even aware of his tail at that moment as it snaked around his body and around Ari's backside, keeping her close. No Matandra made a real sound, but at the back of his mind Ikenna could imagine their big dopey grins just radiating, "Good luck, Ari." With the kiss over, Ikenna would walk away and to the wall, next to his cousins, out of the way but still completely worried about the destruction about to come upon the slums. Finally, the fun could begin. A smile appeared on Uzoma's face and she let go of the steel ball as her opponent vanished before her very eyes, not a word spoken to indicate casting. An ability, whether or not it was what helped hide her presence on the creaky floor, the Matandra could not be sure, but fighting stealthy enemies always made for a particularly interesting fight. Normally someone relying on stealth and invisibility preferred to attack from behind their opponent, to end the fight before it began but skilled ones, much as she suspected Ari would prove to be, attacked from behind only if they were not. Ranged attacks, spells, or just a small distraction like a thrown object. Ari did not disappoint in this regards, but it seemed her invisibility had its flaws. For a second she had to reappear to use another ability, with the spine to do it right in front of Uzoma, a mere ten feet away in the sparring room. That wasn't far enough to keep away from this particular Matandra. The bald woman launched off of the wooden floor with enough force to tear large splinters from the ground, brought her hand, closed-fist, through the air and aimed to land her blow where Ari crouched, rather than at the woman herself. Uzoma didn't waste time to speak, as her son might, or look back at whatever had broken the ground behind her, such as her father would. Instead she chose to exploit the magic of the room, which was bigger on the inside, enchanted by her mother to warp and adapt its dimensions to accommodate most fights. The problem came in the material of the room, recycled old lumber, strong enough to hold up furniture and somebody sitting on it with little problem, even reinforced by magic it was only as strong as steel. When the motherly Matandra punched a hole in the floor, the magic of the room audibly shattered, like a large pane of glass being turned to minuscule shards. The eyes of the spectators, save one, all went wide, an a common thought passed through their minds, "Maybe Ikenna was right." First everything would convulse towards the center of the room as it returned to realistic dimensions, then outwards as the last remnants of magic tried accommodating the placement of the things within. Ikenna and the twins, and Ochieng and the orc, would all get thrown through the walls they were propped against, while the other spectators merely got pinned to their section of wall. Uzoma was slammed against the ceiling but was fully prepared, quickly maneuvering her legs beneath her and launching off of the ceiling and away from where she had originally been standing. Finally, when Uzoma stood at the hole in the wall where the young Matandras had been, she would look behind her, wanting to see if the girl's trick had survived the violent eruption of the room's magic. The room ended up with its original dimensions, forty feet square, with a ten foot high ceiling. Where Uzoma stood she would be seventeen feet from where she originally stood, relative to the magical dimensions. Edited by Ikenna, Wed Feb 18, 2015 7:16 pm.
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| Ari | Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:18 pm Post #7 |
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Ari was out of the way a fraction of a second before Uzoma's fist hit. She had used all four limbs to push off as quickly as possible. Her bare feet and free hand hit the nearest wall. Before she even had a chance to push off, the room itself closed in on her. The wall's dimensions convulsed so forcefully that the wall violently passed through her -- Ari gasped as she found herself outside the building unexpectedly. She caught herself, rolled once, and recovered with a flourish of her flagpole near the edge of the slum-ledges. Ari saw through the hole in the wall that the dozens of appendages she had summoned from the floor had not hit Uzoma, but instead embedded in the ceiling's newly restricted dimensions. When the inside of the building rubber-banded, her tendrils brought down a part of the ceiling and fell limp in a heap around their point of summoning. Dust and roofing material collapsed from the hole. Unafraid and unashamed, Ari gripped her flagpole in both hands and gave it a couple experimental flourishes. Pieces of Ikenna's house were embedded in her back, but nothing severe enough to slow her down when she was this focused. Ari charged back inside, bounding over the rubble, light on her feet. She skidded toward Uzoma's flank and became visible just as she swung her flagpole toward the arakureb's shins. Her goal was to get Uzoma tangled up in the unwieldy piece of metal, if not tripping her then at least distracting her from what Ari was about to do next. That is, she was about to do something very, very stupid. The Nalaian jumped onto Uzoma's back, or tried to. Could have been easier if she actually managed to get the woman tangled up. Ari pressed her feet against the small of Uzoma's back and wrapped her arms around her neck -- one hand tried to clamp a deathgrip around Uzoma's windpipe, trying to bury her fingertips painfully in the space around it. Ari didn't wrap her legs around the arakureb's waist so that she could disengage quicker if Uzoma fell onto her back or decided to turn this into a ground scrap. |
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| Ikenna | Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:36 pm Post #8 |
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It seemed to be giant insect legs, or something like them, covered with barbs, crushed under the debris of the above floor. Uzoma took a moment to act like she was lowering her guard in order to examine them. Sure, they were interesting, but as she had faulted Ikenna for lacking before this fight began, concentration in battle was key to survival. Anything that was no longer a threat, as the limbs seemed to be dead from the room's rapid restoration of its original dimensions and the limbs own size, could be examined and learned about in detail at a later time, after the fight was over. No doubt Ari was still invisible, for as long as that may last, but it seemed like real action during a battle caused it to fail, if even only for a moment. Watching her surroundings would be the safest bet to countering any incoming retaliations for the one-time shot of collapsing the room. Then came the flagpole, the girl's chosen weapon for this conflict. Uzoma had only a moment to jump the incoming strike at her shins, but still did so easily. What she had not been expecting was for her opponent to choose to start going for a piggy-back ride and start hugging her throat. Of course it was obvious she was attempting to choke Uzo out, with fingers pressed against her windpipe, but she thought that the Nalaian would have been stronger. No, it seemed that she was more for stealth, quick strikes and short battles, nothing wrong with it but to try using a grab against Uzoma would require a lot more power. Rather than flopping around like a beast in the sand, or slam against the standing walls of the room, Uzoma grabbed Ari's forearms and would quickly pull them away from her neck, stretching their arms both out to close the gap between her and the monkey on her back before slamming the back of her head into Ari's face. Uzoma would only ease her arms enough to let the rider back a bit more before pulling her taught again for another slam, repeating this simple move until the girl managed to escape. "Surrender or unconsciousness!" Uzoma said, in between two slams, simply stating the means for loss, parroting her father's words from years back. |
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| Ari | Thu Feb 19, 2015 12:19 am Post #9 |
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Ari saw flashes of light, colors shooting across her vision that didn't actually exist. Her peripherals were tinged with black. Warm blood oozed down her nose, out her mouth. The whole time the Nalaian had tried to slip or pry her way out, but not even her leverage from her feet could free her from Uzoma's monstrously strong grip. She was still conscious, and -- as Uzoma said -- that meant she hadn't lost yet. Arakureb were tough. Tough hides, strong. And Uzoma was one of the most powerful in the whole family. Ari had no hope of defeating her with punches and kicks, or even a metal flagpole. Maybe not even with Agorst the Bastard, her living weapon, even though she suspected he would actually sharpen for this fight. This was the type of enemy she would have normally lured into better surroundings, trapped, shot from afar, or utilized some knowledge of a weakness. That was what the Painted Mantis did: evened the playing field with careful premeditation motivated by, paradoxically, impulsive emotion or gluttony or even simply trophy-lust. Ari had the impulsiveness down, but not the premeditation part. Maybe she just had to be more like the Painted Mantis. The transformation was violent. Ari's body grew explosively outward. The edges of painted carapace plates sliced her clothing to ribbons as it hardened into a tough hide. The injury that the Nalaian had bandaged was rendered on her new form as a set of deep black cracks in her thorax. The horse-sized monster's face was utterly ruined: smeared with human blood, but also cracked and leaking the colorless circulatory fluid of an insect. Ari clacked her mandibles at Uzoma before her form went jagged and blurred upward. She reappeared above the arakureb and came in with both forelimbs, aiming to clamp down with enough strength to crack into Uzoma's hide on both shoulders while tackling her to the ground with her superior size. She moved instantaneously a second time, just as soon as she had landed, and this time came in from a different angle with a slash. And a third time, and a fourth time. In all, Ari weaved eight strokes of her claws into the span of a few seconds -- and each time moved instantly to a seemingly random location around Ikenna's mother, getting faster and faster with every attack she made. ...
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| Ikenna | Thu Feb 19, 2015 12:58 am Post #10 |
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Uzoma has somewhat of a problem with the way that the fight had been progressing. She had expected that someone who would so daringly pick a fight with a Matandra would be so reckless, so simple to counter. Perhaps it really was just the difference between someone who relied heavily on stealth versus one who so favored to be in the heart of battle. Maybe if Ari had time to hide should would have proven more formidable than to be bloodying the back of Uzoma's head with her face. Ochieng and the orc woman had been thrown the same direction as Ari, through the wall. Unlike Ari, they were thrown almost clear of the slums. The elder Arakureb managed to catch grip of both the orc's head and the wooden ledge before completely falling. By the time they managed to crawl back onto the floor, Ari was getting her face smashed in a most peculiar way. Ikenna and his cousins had been thrown into another room, the Matandra Armory. In the Armory were unused equipment, set up on armor and weapon racks, though the room was mostly comprised of armor and weapons no longer used, for their wielders were long since dead. Ikenna helped the twins to their feet, and when he turned to face the fight he cringed at the sight of what was happening. Ikenna's cringe quickly turned to shock, much as everybody else's did, when Ari exploded. Still he found the transformation frightening, even moreso that his family was seeing the Painted Mantis emerge to fight his mother. From across the room, Ochieng glared at his grandson, not for the mantis but for not sharing information such as this. Uzoma was the last to see what was happening as her opponent's weight suddenly and sharply increased behind her. At first she thought it was nothing more than the twins interfering with the fight, trying to call an end and announce Ari's unconsciousness, but that thought was quickly discarded with the feeling of the flesh beneath her hands changed. Uzoma released Ari and quickly distanced herself from whatever was happening to free the girl from her clutches, and what she saw was definitely not what she expected. Where once had been a girl with skin of stories, now there was an injured insect that seemed to be mostly white in appearance. The injuries carried through to this new form, showing as cracks in its tough hide. The creature tried to jump Uzoma, but the arakurebian woman quickly dived out of the way. When it started attacking with its massive foreclaws, she managed to dodge the first two strikes easily enough, though still having been unable to rightly adjust and comprehend what it was she was fighting. She spun and moved quickly to dodge the attacks, trying to find a way that she could retaliate safely, but the apparent teleportation and vicious blows made it difficult to have that split moment to think. The third strike was the first to break her skin on her arm which she brought up to deflect the blow, opening red blood against the black skin. The fourth was deeper and cut into her shoulder, making her orange eyes go wide and bright. It was becoming more difficult to defend against, the beast was growing faster, and Uzoma could only see one option remaining. "<I will fall to nothing white as you, monster!>" Uzoma shouted at the top of her lungs, a flash of memory striking pain in her heart and making her skin feel like it would boil. The fifth strike, Uzoma did not defend against. Instead she put the full brunt of her power and abilities forward at the mantis, letting it claw at her side in the moment it would stay still, a fair trade. The punch, once connected, would let out a thunderous sound. It was a punch that when used by a normal being could dent steel, but when used by somebody as powerful as Uzoma, it was frightening. Debris ten feet around the point of impact, the Painted Mantis' hide, would be pushed away, the ears of the present Matandras', and possibly Ari, would begin ringing painfully. If needed to, if the Painted Mantis would not fall from the first strike, Uzoma would follow it with another, even if the beast teleported again for another strike. Pain was a small price for victory. Ikenna's eyes went wide at the sight, he could feel himself screaming for Ari, but could not hear his own words. |
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| Ari | Thu Feb 19, 2015 1:33 am Post #11 |
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"White...?" Ari's larger size also made her less agile when faced with Uzoma's blows. She couldn't even twist to mitigate the blow. It warped the air, almost seemed to warp reality itself. All noises faded to a dull hum except the rhythmic pounding of her heart. The impact was like a crater hitting stone. Uzoma's fist made a depression that cracked and warped Ari's carapace. The force moved through her body and roared outward in a cone. Time slowed, then sped up. The monster's body flew through the nearest wall, punched holes through multiple layers of wall, and then exploded out the other side of the Matandra complex in a spectacular cloud of dust and debris. It hit the ground and slid, cracking the slum-ledge as it went. Seconds passed. A minute. Then, just as the dust was beginning to settle, the Painted Mantis' body twitched. She slowly drew up her broken limbs even when a few hung from her body by a thread. Her shredded wings quivered as they failed in an attempt to fold neatly onto her body. And Ari's bladed forelimbs closed slowly, very slowly, until she was using them to prop herself up. In an ultimate gesture of defiance and utter unwillingness to admit defeat, the giant mantis stood and stared at the hole she just made -- and whoever might be walking through it to meet her. The sight of a crushed insect was nothing special to most sapients, likely due to their small size. But the Painted Mantis was a broken wreck. It moved when it looked like it should not, and the way it worked its shattered body parts came straight out of a nightmare. It took all of Ari's strength and concentration to avoid blacking out from the agonizing pain in her entire body. "<I will not yield>," Ari said in antiquated Istani. She maintained her stance just long enough to sustain eye contact with Uzoma Matandra. Then the Painted Mantis crumpled into windblown flakes of ash. Ari's human form dropped out of the horse-sized monstrosity and collapsed front-first onto the ground before the wind carried her old form away. The Nalaian's recent injury was reopened from exertion and half her ribcage appeared collapsed or at the very least shattered. No attempt to wake her would be successful. Despite all that, she still had a pulse. |
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| Ikenna | Thu Feb 19, 2015 2:09 am Post #12 |
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Uzoma chased after the giant insect with Ikenna closes on her heels. Uzoma was still acting on the burning sensation of combat, wanting to finish what was started with in an ultimate kind of sense. Mostly it was misplaced anger mixed with sudden shock, stories of the Pale Fiend's appearance and own abilities, it all seemed to wake up old nightmares she had the moment she saw the pale chitinous form attacking her. Ikenna responded for concern of Ari, within the form of the beast. If the Painted Mantis carried with it the pain inflicted to the human form, then Ari would no doubt be suffering the destruction upon her body from his mother's sonic strike. The rest of the Matandras followed shortly behind, but only Amador was able to catch up to the mother and son. The first through the final hole was, of course, Uzoma. The woman stopped just on the other side of the hole, her body still burning inside, calling for absolute destruction, to burn the white bug from the world, but she held herself back upon seeing the Mantis rise to its feet, its body broken. Ikenna was next, pushing his way past his battle-ready mother and to the Painted Mantis' side as it collapsed and turned back into Ari. "<No, no, no.> Ari." Ikenna was panicked, unsure of what to do. She was a mess on the ground, wounds open and body broken, "Ari, Ari, Ari. <Oh gods.> Ari." The orcish Matandra was next, already in the midst of casting a spell illuminated with golden light. "Dura, Ari, <W-W-Will she--?>" Ikenna hadn't seen anything quite like this ferocity. He had seen his mother's punch used before in spars against her father out in the desert, but he always managed to block it or dodge it. Ike had no idea that the punch was capable of such devastation, and to see its full effects used against Ari, of all people in the world, sent his mind into a stuttering spiral, "<Please, P-Please Dura, you can, you can. . .>" "<Hush, Ikenna!>" Dura barked at him as she laid her glowing hands upon Ari's naked form, "<I was trained too well to fail, even if she died.>" Finally the reality of the situation returned to Uzoma. She hadn't meant to unleash such Hell, not on Ari. She didn't want to hurt Ari, just beat her senseless a bit, but to see that form, like nightmares realized, it sent her mind rushing with fear and anger. Her mouth hung open slightly and her eyes went wide. Had she just nearly killed the girl? Ochieng came through a moment later as Ari's wounds closed with a blanket in his hands, her chest fixed, and all other injuries otherwise gone. The big arakureb put the blanket over the girl's body. Dura trained to heal, it was no wonder she became a Matandra. Saving the lives of fools. When her body was healed, Ikenna would pick Ari back up into his arms, "Ari? Ari, can you awaken? Please. Please wake. Can she, Dura?" "Gods willing, or her willing. She has no more open injuries, though she will not scar from this fight, or whatever one bloodied her before it." Dura explained, speaking somewhat to Ikenna's strange fascination with scars as she stood, brushing herself off, "Well, you did warn the girl. Though perhaps you should have mentioned that insect form before she fought your mother?" Edited by Ikenna, Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:23 am.
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| Ari | Thu Feb 19, 2015 3:24 am Post #13 |
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Ari awoke with a gasp of breath. Her fingers curled into fists and she had halfway pushed herself up onto her hands and knees before she remembered what had happened, what was going on, and that there was a blanket currently preserving the modesty of everyone who could see her. She sat on her knees and held the blanket close with one hand, looking around with a confused expression. The orc woman and Ikenna were closest, but several of the other Matandras -- including a very regretful-looking Uzoma -- were nearby. She turned to the orcish woman first. "Were you the one who healed me? Thank you. You are very talented." Then, after turning to Ikenna, Ari placed a comforting hand on his own. She stood and walked over to Uzoma Matandra, never breaking eye contact or losing her grave expression. When she was close enough, Ari fell to a kneel, placing her free fist to the ground as her other clutched the blanket. She stared at Uzoma's feet. "I admit defeat at your hands in this sparring match. However, I must make one final request. Let me be the one to be strung upside-down off the side of the slums, not Ikenna. After that, I humbly request an audience with you, Ochieng Matandra, and the rest of the Matandra clan present, for I have an urgent request from the Nalai archipelago." |
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| Ikenna | Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:21 am Post #14 |
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"I know I am." Dura said, definitely not lacking any confidence in her healing ability, "I can keep the Matandras alive after similar matches, after all. How do you think I found my way to this family?" When Ari stood, Ikenna did as well, though he did not follow her as she approached his mother. Instead he stayed back, heart pounding in his chest and a mixture of emotions swirling around within his head. Amador approached him and placed and on his shoulder for comfort, trying to quietly ease the boy's mind. "That's why you kiss her before a battle, you see?" He said quietly into Ike's ear, "In case it is the last time." Damnit, Ike didn't want to admit that Amador had a point. A very strong point. Uzoma did not break eye contact with Ari, despite what happened, despite her unvoiced feelings regarding it. When the girl fell to her knee, Uzoma wasn't entirely sure how to react. Luckily Ari's words went quickly from Uzoma to Ochieng, alleviating a strange sense of responsibility from the mother. Ochieng let out a bit solid laugh. "Points which should probably be made, considering everything that has happened." The big arakureb said once he stopped laughing, "First, never kneel to a Matandra, it is bad form in this family; stand tall even in defeat. Respect for such things in this family is going to a cantina and buying the victor drinks, even after a bet like this. Second, you should probably be dressed before speaking with the Patriarch. Third, I am not the Patriarch, I am just old, and tough, and big." "Fourth, the price of your loss can wait until the business is done." Uzoma finally spoke up, controlling her own mix of emotions from the battle, though beneath the surface she was still a bit shaken by her own loss of control. "Fourth, the bet can wait-- I am doing the points." Ochieng turned and snapped at his daughter with a hushed tone, "I am your father and Third in this family's heirarchy, you are but Fourth and my daughter. I could bury you." "You should do the points better, then." Uzoma said, utterly calm in the face of her father's words. "You know what is coming next, right?" Amador whispered into Ikenna's ears, slow words, sinister in sound, "Same as with your father, same as with me, same as with Dura, and now same as with Ari. He did watch the challenge, after all." Ikenna's hand slowly moved from his face, revealing his eyes, burning bright orange, filled with a whole different kind of worry than a moment ago. If Amador knew one thing with utmost certainty, it was how to change Ike's mood in an instant. No longer was Ikenna suffering from a mixture of emotions regarding the fight and Ari's poor state from a moment ago. "Actually, maybe we can speak of the matters quickly?" Ikenna's words were faster than normal, strung together in a panic of eminent embarrassment and an awkward situation, "I mean surely he would not mind if we were to hear what Ari came to say without him, and of course on his behalf. We would have to do it quickly and then he would be grateful that we were competent enough to handle matters on our own, rather than bothering him with it since, after all, it does concern the whole family and not just him and we would not want to waste time with any sort of votes, complicated decision making, or any time wasted because surely if Ari is asking for anything from the Matandra family involving Nalai it has to be an urgent matter. . ." "Nonsense! Well, not about the importance of whatever must be happening in Nalai." A distinctly old Istani voice came from behind Uzoma and Ochieng, which in the common tongue carried a thick accent with it, "That was a good fight! Better than Dura's when she joined this family." Ochieng and Uzoma stepped out of the way to let an old shaven-head arakureb, whose white hair was beginning to grow back on his dark sclap, past them, the final Matandra present in the complex. Behind him at the tunnel was the twins, watching the scene with intrigue. "My name is Alemayehu Amala'Meyana Matandra, but you can call me Alem." He said, his voice rolling, smooth, powerful. Upon his old face, old enough to have wrinkles in arakurebian skin, he had a big smile, "I am the Matandra family Patriarch, First ranked in this family as of this year and fifty years back. In this family, my word is law only to be questioned by one other, who should be obvious without being said. Now, Ikenna, come and stand by Ari." Ikenna's steps were slow at first, but his pace to Ari's side picked up when Amador gave him a solid kick in the back, deftly dodging the reaction of Ike's tail. Ike had no trouble with standing at Ari's side, but he had heard the stories, seen one of the battles against a Matandra in such a circumstance, and it made his body both flare in heat of concern and cool to make him shake. "After a fight like that, Ari. . ." Alem stopped and looked at Ikenna shivering, and thought of the perfect way to make the young Matandra stop, "Are you cold? You realize that this girl is naked and uninjured beneath the blanket and just offered to take your place on the rope?" Ikenna's coldness vanished, just as planned. Now there was just unwavering, unshaking, heart-pounding, embarrassment. Ikenna couldn't even speak out against this if he wanted to, Alem would have just hit him in the stomach to keep him from interrupting. "Good." Alem continued with a chuckle, "It is clear, Ari of Nalai, that you are brave and strong. Be it this form or that you turned into, you have shown that you are not easily deterred in the face of battle, and most importantly are willing to stand for Ikenna. After such a battle as that, and as is Matandra custom since before even I was born, you may marry into this family whenever you wish, and we will gladly consider you one of us regardless. You may now kiss Ikenna for it looks as if I stopped the thinking part of his brain too much for him to take the initiative. After that you can choose privacy with him or to speak of what troubles the Nalai archipelago." Edited by Ikenna, Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:23 am.
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| Ari | Fri Feb 20, 2015 5:16 am Post #15 |
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Having rose from her kneel, Ari turned to face the Patriarch of the Matandra family. Despite the blanket clasped to her body, she faced the old arakureb with dignity: back straight, jawline almost parallel to the ground, eyes keen. She only looked away to give Ikenna next to her a small grin, especially after Alem's comment. When prompted, the Nalaian took Ikenna's clothes collar by her free hand, pulled him in and gave him a brief peck on the lips. Even if the mention of marriage was terrifying, Ari couldn't help but look around and smile a little. She had only met these people a few minutes ago, but already they felt much more familiar to her than her own family. "Patriarch Alem, thank you. While I understand I am in no position to be making suggestions, might I humbly request we continue this conversation indoors? I could put on some clothing, as well." She slyly side-eyed Ikenna, but didn't mention the other option he had offered to them. Ari always carried spare clothing for occasions like this. Wherever the Matandra family chose to have their meeting, she would be there in her typical dark green robe, trousers and sandals. She wore her weapons on her body and had her Painted Armor collected together for when she'd depart. When it was proper to speak, she went into her explanation and request. "I need to begin this with an introduction. My name is Bethari -- no surname. I am what the people of Nalai call an 'incarnation.' The monsters and heroes of Nalaian mythology are not just stories. They reincarnate as actual Nalaian people, keeping our history alive. Forgive me if you were already familiar with the concept. Incarnations are very powerful beings. But they normally do not play a role in initiating major events in these modern times. That was what we thought until, just recently, one of our ancient heroes killed the King of Nalai and took the throne. Multiple other factions, all led by incarnations of their own, rose and violently declared their independence. Nalai is no longer a single nation. It has been shattered into many pieces. Worse yet, some factions appear to be pursuing goals much more dire than the throne. My country is a war-torn mess. That is where my request comes in." In the short span of Ari's pause, something odd registered on her face. It could have been hesitation, or dis-ease, or merely the fact that something was up with what she was about to say next. "I work in association with a faction that desires a return to the peaceful and prosperous state Nalai was in before the civil war began. All other factions desire change. And we are losing. I was-- sent here by that leader. To gather arakureb. I... er, I confess my relationship with the arakureb race is complex, throughout my lifetimes." Terrible time to mention that. Not even Ikenna knew that. Ari mentally cursed, but kept her face neutral. "I would like to amend my associate's request for arakureb into a request for Matandras. Maybe with Matandras we can start turning the tide of battle in our favor. Your family has a love of war and naturally defies the odds." |
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7:31 PM Jul 11

