Roleplay Kingdoms

Sael stood silently on his platform, opposite his opponent. He raised his hand and spoke a few words in Old Archaian, his eyes closed as he imagined the creature of his choice. Finally he uttered a final phrase, that would roughly translate "Let it be".

At his end of the arena, there was a flurry of leaves. Suddenly from the flurry rose a gigantic creature: Vast and large-jawed, it had the appearance of a leopard, except living wood and wet moss made its muscles and its skin appeared to be a thick mud. The creature rose to its feet and let out a challenging roar, which sounded sort of like an entirely woodwind orchestra playing the all the harmonious notes they could, all at once. It was a wild and magnificent melody, with throbbing bass that shook the stands. His claws and fangs extended, and appeared to be made from stone.

Sael smiled softly and said, under his breath, "Perfect." The green entry was a slight deviation from Archaian tradition but it was what Sael believed would be the best competition for his opponent.

Grey had taken his position on his own platform when he had seen the flurry of leaves. Seeing the creature born of nature and magic he merely bowed respectfully to his opponent, and got to work.

The canine male reached a hand over his shoulder to grasp the hilt of his runeblade, slowly withdrawing the sword with a practised grace. Upon withdrawing the blade he held it aloft for the spectators to get a good look at the sword. The runeblade itself was a total of five and a half feet long, with eight inches of that being the hilt and crossguard. He gave the audience a few moments to get a glimpse of the blade before stabbing the sword downwards into the very platform he stood upon. The platform began to take on a darker colour, and anyone within 15 feet of the now-corrupted area would get a feeling of innate horror, terror, and morbid curiousity.

Around 10 feet infront of the platform a large, purple hued portal began to open. Anyone potentially looking inside would be starring into what was known as the fleshworks within Ahn'kahet. The other thing that they would notice would be the 47 foot tall monstrosity that was lumbering forward through the portal itself. It's body was a wild jumble of bodies, all stitched together and reformed into one gigantic titan of flesh, bone, and sinews. The creature's fingers seemed to be Particularly elongated, each finger averaged 7 feet in length and the fingers ended in what could only be described as talons. The creature's mouth seemed to have been fashioned from some sort of black metal, the mouth itself was filled to the literal brim with spikes and serrated edges.

The canine waved towards his opponent and smiled warmly, regardless of winning or losing, the irony of the battle would likely not be lost on either summoner.

Wicco was not a summoner. He built things with his mind through his hands. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was the wrong person for this event - but the tribe had spoken and he had been given all he would need to summon and control his creature. But he still didn't like this, nope, not one bit.

Wicco had brought with him a seemingly solid metal cube cut roughly a cubit in all three dimensions. Wicco knew what was inside it, he wondered why his nation had brought such a creature within it. Had the scholars back in the Center City found a way to control one? Wicco nudged it towards the edge of the tribune he stood upon. He didn't to touch the box more than he had to, he didn't want what was inside to get any ideas before the event truly began.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" The robed woman shouted to the excited crowd. "Today you will see the land's greatest summoners' creatures duke it out in glorious combat! Shield your eyes as it may turn ferocious! But most of all, pay your respects to the summoners!"

Wicco waved awkwardly as he continued to nudge to box off the stand, he was not looking forward to this - he pulled out his weapon like the scholars had told him, it would help control the thing in the box. Wicco watched in awe as the creatures of earthen materials and flesh constructions. Such magnificent but terrifying beasts to bring forth, though he wondered how even they would fair against what dwelled - for now - in the box. In one swift motion Wicco stabbed his vajra into the top face of the box instantly creating a perfectly square shaped hole into the center of the cube. Ahuachltite runes exploded outwards across the surface of the cube from the point of impact of Wicco's weapon.

As if in slow motion Wicco drew out his weapon now that it had imprinted on the box and let the container fall. As it fell wisps of black smoke began to pour out, the box tumbled against the side of the tribune releasing more smoke as it did so. The box rolled away and into the field a good 15 feet from where the base of the tribune was, it had landed hole upward as more smoke poured out. But it wasn't smoke, not really - at times it looked almost liquid, other times it had fur, and sometimes it resembled a black tattered cloth. All that can really be said was that what ever it was made of it didn't want to make up it's mind, not yet anyway.

"Oh Mother, Cat, Child and Tree... Please guide me how to direct this Thing and protect me from it's Torment..." Wicco prayed as he held is weapon outwards and towards the shifting form of what was exiting the box. As he did so an arc of lighting escaped the tip of his weapon and struck the surface of the box. The runes on his weapon and the runes on the box glowed with the same energy, the creature from the box howled with deep hatred, disgust and no small amount of pain. Wicco had been warned not to let it out of the box completely or it would be just as difficult to recapture it as it had been to contain it the first time; if not more so now that this one had learned how it's prison worked.

The wisp of shifting texture and matter began to take a more solid form, solid being a relative term, it took on the form of something familiar to itself and to Wicco. A Cave Wolf, it had matted black fur, a canine body that was thickly built and razor sharp claws the size of a person. But there were things off about it; the claws were prehensile and flexible, the fur steamed out black smoke and looked thin and watery beneath, it body was also much larger and stood at least 30 feet from paw to shoulders. But was truly set it apart was the face, true the shape of the head was normal and proportional to the colossal size but the face was very off. It had one eye, the left one, the other was lost in a shifting mass of liquidy, smokey black fur. The featureless eye glowed white and did not blink. Then there was the mouth; where there should've been lots of sharp teeth there was a gaping, gooey, dripping maw that was harshly upturned into a manic grin.

Wicco all but froze in place as he came face to face with one of his numerous deepest fears. "Don't eat me..." Was all Wicco could muster in a whisper as he held his weapon out in front of him, hoping it would deter the beastly Tormentor. The shapeshifting colossus drew closer to Wicco, it's crudely formed face swirling with dark smoke; Wicco could hear its whispers, the promises it told about his future, the images of everything he cared about contorted into madness - the terrible things that would happen to him. Wicco shook his head to make the voices go away. "No, no, no, NO! Stop it! I am in control!" Wicco said as he shot a bolt of arc lighting at the box the creature was attached too. The beast howled in greater pain, the voices screamed and writhed with the howling; it was like hearing a village being slaughtered by wild beasts of the night.

"You will fight for me." Wicco said with greater determination as he over came the voices, images and fears within his head. The beast didn't like this but it obliged and turned its attention to the opposite side of the field where the Nishta summoner was. Whatever creature they sent out would have to suppress instinct and overcome their deepest fears, or risk literally being ripped apart and eaten by them.

((Just so Nishta's summoner knows, Wicco is controlling a creature of fear and pain. A Tormentor. They shapsshift into the things we fear most and torment their prey into insanity. They are intelligent and sadistic creatures. It is highly likely that this Tormentor will play upon the fears of both the summoner and the summoned in this event - fair warning.))

Jordina Righton was absolutely buzzing with excitement, though her frail appearance made her look like she didn't quite belong amongst the beast tamers. In the time she'd been sick she'd spent a long time reading about summoning and the mythology of her country, and she couldn't wait to put that knowledge to good use.

She smiled warmly at her competitor as she held her hand out, she needed no rituals or fancy methods to call forth her beast, just the will. She bit her cheek as tiny black bugs began pouring out of the pours in her arm and amassing into a great swarm where they fused together into a creature she only saw in pictures otherwise, a drakkon.

It wasn't perfect, they never were, the beast absorbed all light that touched it like a great shadow through thick insect like armor. It's had six legs bearing long, sharp claws scratched the stage even more than the customary four would have. a Though the beast she meant to create was wingless this one had shell guarding what were almost certainly the wings of a beetle on it's back. And most egregiously it's face had pincers rather than a snout. It would have to do though, she couldn't fix that now. Besides, Castor and Pollux had told her that the massive deformed beasts always looked more terrifying than what she based them on.

The princess looked over the creature her competitor had summoned before she took the blindfold from her wrist and covered her eyes, it was a frightening beast, certainly, but her creations had never allowed anything to bring her harm before and they wouldn't now. She took a deep breath and listened to the sounds of the monsters before her, this would be difficult, but so long as she kept focused she had nothing to worry about. Jordina grinned, "Shall we begin sir? Or are we just going to stand here and show off how pretty our monsters are?"

He was frightened of his own monster, she could tell that, but she wasn't going to let it distract her. Fear did nobody any good. Any plant life on the ground around her withered and died, as much as she told herself she wasn't afraid, she was terrified.

((Thank you. Just so you know Nistha's beast is honestly a mindless conglomerate of disease I don't believe it fears anything, thank you for making Jordy just a tad bit more formidable by frightening her though. This should be fun.))

The Tormentor continued to smile it's toothless dripping grin as it sized up its next prey. It could sense no immediate fear from it - at least nothing it could change into. So it changed into the the thing it knew illnesses would have a hard time thriving against - things that were cold, or wet, or hot or cures. While it calculated how to beat this amalgam of bugs there would be a series of whispers heard by Jordina and only by her.

"What are you waiting for? Attack!" Wicco shouted at the Tormentor. The shifting beast rushed forward at blinding speed towards the giant drakkon on the opposing side of the field. As they would collide the Tormentor would shoot out tendrils to attempt to restrain the opposing creatures multiple legs and arms. Any resistance met would cause the Tormentor to liquefy against any attack, effectively neutralizing any intended damage and reform after the attack had passed while still attempting to wrestle with the insect-like beast.

They would ask her questions, these questions would in turn coerce her think about the answers. But the voices did more than just that, they spoke to her and told her things only she knew about - things that would begin to cause worry within her. Then it would happen, she would hear a familiar voice; why it was familiar would not be immediately known. It was distinctly male when it spoke through the chatter of voices she would hear. "Jordina. It has been a while." the Voice said. Should she be inclined to look she would feel this person's presence just to her side and in her blind spot, no matter how she would turn or try to look directly at this individual she would not be able to - at least not for long.

The man out of her field of vision would appear to her to be wearing typical if somewhat higher class clothing from Nishta underneath a black cloak that was pulled over his head. His face would seem familiar for reasons yet unknown but he was not someone she had met just yet. "How have you been?" he said compassionately as if he were concerned for her health and well being outside of her city. His clothes were monochromatic in shades of black and grey, his angular face and long cropped hair were pale white yet exceptionally healthy looking.

((The beast might not be afraid but it will still try to prey on Jordina. Mind you this creature has been around for thousands of years and is very skilled at what it does.))

Sael began singing along with his beast, Sael's voice magically amplified so the plant-monster could hear. As he sang, the monster's song lilted and swayed, and suddenly the creature leapt forward, screaming at the dark monster that stood before it. In the green leopard's breath flew little tendrils of leaves that blew in the wind, a few landing on the monster. The challenge was followed by a pounce, the leopard landing on the monster's shoulder and sinking his fangs into the creature's leg, above the talons. The tree-beast savagely attempted to rip at the monster's arm.

A large gash would appear on the flesh giants shoulder from the tearing. Large black worms would wriggle and writhe their way out of the wound, and began to attach themselves to the panther. The flesh beast looked confused for a moment, then reached out with its free hand to grab the panther and raise it to its mouth. Once the panther had been raised the creature would snap it's metal jaws down on the panthers side, taking a large chunk out of it.

The lupine just watched from above with mild interest, grinning slightly as he observed the fight from his raised platform.

The whispers surprised her, but she did her best to disregard them, though the sickening plants around her spread, shriveling with a new found ferocity.
Her drakkon was quick to wrap itself defensively around her, lashing out at the Tormentor in a fury of claws. It made no move to avoid the tendrils, instead letting them wrap around it's limbs and body until it burst apart into a swarm of bugs that burrowed their way into the Tormentor and fought to stay inside it with all their might as the larger swarm inside it rebuilt the parts where it had torn. The beast didn't seem to even be attempting to bring down it's opponent so much as watching it with lackluster eyes. Merely touching the beast was normally enough to cause illness, it just waited for something nasty to set in.
Without warning the monster swung it's tail at it's master, breaking apart and rejoining so close around her so close that it tore and rotted her skirts. The princess couldn't see the speaker but she'd certainly make sure to take them out. The process repeated several times and the beast wrapped tighter around her until it was bent at unnatural angles to fend off anything else. It seemed unfazed by that however, and the princess felt a surge of reassurance as a partial swarm of bugs rushed past her skin. She had a plague on her side and as far as she was concerned, nothing could be immune to all the thousands of sicknesses rushing under it's armor. Whether her confidence was courage or adrenaline she didn't care, her monstrosity loosened around her, swinging it's tail through her as the only reminder of her fear asides from the small hesitance she had to move any closer to the action.
The man's voice made her jump and although he sounded familiar, she couldn't place him. It was none of her family or the guard, which rarely meant a friend if they approached her while she was blindfolded. Her drakkon threw it's tail through the area, bursting into a cloud of bugs that burrowed into anything organic before it reformed. The princess coerced the swarm that had attacked her out and directed them into a cloud around her, "The usual."

((Yeah, but Jordina normally lets loose when she's scared. The more it frightens her the harder she's going to make herself to get to, the bigger her monster is going to get and the bigger the chances are that she'll just panic and let loose a plague with no predecessor. A animal tends to get a bit scarier when it's cornered))

Despite how much she would try to ignore the whispering they would not go away, their chattering rattling around in her ears only. Not even her drakkon could guard her from this torment. As the bugs made their way into the tendrils of indeterminable matter they would be either crushed from within or slip out harmlessly as the touched less than solid parts of the shapeshifter's long extensions. All the while the grin never wavered from it's terrible visage, it seemed to thrive on any resistance - no matter how small. The diseases these bugs carried would not affect the shapeshifter, it did not seem to have any weakness to the disorders or maladies that attempted to afflict it.

As the battle went on the Tormentor would slowly yet steadily grow larger as it drew on the ambient fears of the children and adults in the stands. The man near her did not seem phased by the pestilence around her in the slightest, it was as if he was always in the right spot to avoid being harmed. He did however continue to speak to her, the more he did the more she would want to respond - he had that effect on people for some reason. "You know, you can't kill or hurt fear. Fear is everywhere and it effects everything that has the will to survive." He said to her through the storm of bugs around her. "Its funny. Survival... The instinct found within every living thing..." The man said to her as if confirming things she would know to be true.

As the bugs dispersed from her to form a hazy barrier the Tormentor drew in closer and began to surround the cloud, effectively trapping both enemies at once.

The drakkon kept around her and the bugs filled the air around her with a deafening buzz, yet still the whispering kept up. Not possible, not right. For every member of the swarm the Tormentor disposed of it seemed like there were a hundred more taking it's place. It kept fighting against the monster of fear, but that didn't seem to lessen any of the onslaught. The other creature didn't seem bothered by any of the diseases.
Jordina held her spot i n the storm, the safest spot for her to be in the whole arena when she thought about it. And yet that familiar voice never seemed to stop, so distracting it was really. She laughed a little, here she was in the center of a hurricane of sickness and yet she couldn't get rid of one man. How pathetic. The princess nodded, "Well of course you can't, that doesn't mean I can't overcome it. I've been dying for far to long not to know that." A thought occurred to her, "You know I didn't think of that. Makes the strategy really obvious doesn't it? I don't need to attack the monster, or play the defensive at all. Thank you for the advice."
Her swarm vanished into her drakkon, which hesitantly unwrapped it's massive body from around her and righted it's odd angles. She couldn't feel the pulsing swarm around her anymore, she didn't breath in any of the bugs anymore, only the air. She sent her monster barreling towards her opponent while she stood defenseless.A risky move, but there was the chance it could reward her. It couldn't get through.
The princess crossed her arms, this wasn't good. She couldn't have her beast stuck in a cage if she planned to take the offensive. It released it's wings and tested upwards, it burst into a swarm and tried to send bugs through any small gaps. It reformed around the princess as she went to investigate the obstacle, "Curious. But there's got to be a way through... Or do you just intend to swallow me whole?"
She could feel her blood run with ice just being close to it and stepped back, this wouldn't do...
"Can't go over, can't go around, can't go through..." ,her monster started to dig, throwing massive amounts of dirt into the air and at the opponents beast as if in an insult. The beast, having taken the form of a creature meant for that purpose excelled at the endeavor, leaving Jordina with only a small swarm for defense, "Suppose that leaves just one option..."

Sael's song began to be a chant, words in a language even he didn't understand, a language so ancient that even the wisest Archaian scholars wouldn't understand. As Sael's melody and words wove themselves in with the beast's shrill calls, the flesh giant tore a chunk of wood out of the plant-leopard's side. The leopard, once free, swatted away the black maggots, hissing screaming in its rich, high melody.

Suddenly the panther reared and screamed.

Plants tore suddenly out of the flesh giant's chest and arms, where the seeds had landed when the tree-cat had issued its challenge. The lush foliage wrapped itself around the monster and wove itself through the monster's meat as the cat spewed even more seeds onto his opponent. Vines thick as the cat's legs sprouted from the giant's feet and anchored it to the ground. The first vines that had sprouted from the giant's chest sprouted thorns as long as the giant's fangs and dug them into the giant's flesh, tearing and poisoning.

Sael's eyes closed as his melody reached a crescendo and maintained a high pace and volume. The leopard's voice chimed in unison and harmony.

They became one, and soon no one could tell if the cat was issuing its own voice or Sael's, and the half-elf seemed to sing as the leopard did.

The black worms would merely latch on to the panthers swatting paws, attaching their prehensile bodies to the great claws and inching their way upwards to the panthers legs. Once they reach the legs they begin to burrow their way into the wood of it's body. If they were able to remain in the wood they would start to multiply, and on top of that the wood around the worms would go black and rot away. If the worms continued to feed they would grow in size and length, looking more like tentacles than worms.

The flesh giant himself was actually not even responding to the massive amounts of damage that it was taking, muscle tearing, bone breaking, and sinews ripping apart. The beast held it's position, standing upright and not making a sound.

The plants and thorns that had burst from the titans flesh would immediately begin to rot and decay, the worms immediately setting upon them, and it's blight infused flesh was certainly no friend to nature.As the worms devoured and consumed the offending plantmatter it seems that the broken down and corrupted material was used to reinforce the giants body, pieces of black, gnarled wood covered the wounds. The very ground itself began to wither and die as the flesh giants black, revolting blood spilled onto the ground.

Up above, on the platform, the canine watched with a keen interest, looking over each and every detail. He even went so far as to withdraw a scroll from his jacket and begin to write in it, giving a rough sketch of the panther and writing what abilities he has seen in combat thus far. He also hypothesized on the possible applications of noted abilities.

If Sael had learned anything through his training, it was that plants are life. Pure and powerful life.

The leopard's head tilted upward, toward the shining sun that beat down upon him and the decaying monster before him. The black maggots would suddenly burn and die as the leopard absorbed the energy of the sun, their remains being absorbed as nutrients. Suddenly, a massive vine that had been growing out of the leopard's back blossomed into a massive purple flower and released a cloud of fine dust, that drifted over the flesh monster. Suddenly, the wood and vines that had been corrupted withered away completely, leaving massive gaping wounds in the monster's chest, arms, and legs.

A cleansing pollen.

Plants are life.

Where the monster had hurt the cat, the living wood began regrowing, and layers of mud coated the entire creature.

(A question, how are the maggots dying yet the plant life is not burning ,the mud is not hardening and cracking, so on so forth. If the heat is what is killing them then that would be very destructive to the panther as well. If it is by some divine method the maggots themselves would not be affected in the slightest, they are perfectly natural creatures which are commonly found in large groups in the tunnels of Ahn'kahet.)

The tree-beast is specifically designed to utilize extreme amounts of heat from solar energy. The flower acts as a radiator to keep the wood from reaching flash-point and there are a couple other cooling methods.

(Ah, well that would most certainly kill them. Thank you for clarifying on that point.)

From the outside it would look as if a swirling dome of darkness had covered the Nisthian summoner and her beast. Within there was an entirely different atmosphere; the feelings of dread, hopelessness and depression raged just as strong as the vortex of darkness. In the midst of this stood Jordina and her digging partner, as dirt was flung at the walls of the dome Jordina would find herself being covered in the loose soil as it was tossed back at her. This was clear sign that had she attacked with her beast earlier all the damage done would've been reflected right to her.

"Digging your way back home? Or finding a new angle of attack?" the man in the maelstrom asked rhetorically. As he reached out to gently touch the still blindfolded Jordina, he intended to remove the blindfold. His skin would not be affected by the swarm of bugs, if anything they seemed to either move around him or go straight through as if he weren't even there to begin with.

On the surface of the platform she and her beast stood on the swirling shadows drew closer until they suddenly lashed off the ground and continued to bind the beast and restrain the girl.

If the Tormentor was successful in removing the blindfold the first thing she would see would be the vortex - and then the vortex would look at her. The big, featureless, glowing white eye and the gaping dripping grin of the Tormentor looking into her mind to find what her fears were and then use them against her in all of the most terrible ways.

Far on the opposite side of the field...
Wicco stood looking on, he really didn't know what he was doing or what was going on within the swirling barrier. All he could do was hope that the girl hadn't been devoured yet. If she was she wouldn't see the light of day again - at least not with a sound mind.

*Anyone who possibly witnessed the maggots exploding from the heat would be both amused and disgusted at the same time, the maggots literally popped from the intense heat. What was left behind were small pockets of blight, around 20 cm around for each individual worm who exploded. The gaseous form of the blight began to slowly dissolve the naturalistic panther slowly from the inside, quite literally eating it. Any area that the blight had touched would lose it's connection to magic and or the divines until the creature had died. unlike most variations of blight this one was unique to the carrion worms, the blight itself was naturally immune to temperature based effects such as heat and lack thereof.

The flesh giant wobbled slightly on its feet, inadvertently stumbling forward on a course to crash into the panther. If the blow had connected then the giant would instinctively unhinge it's jaw and bite down onto the panthers back, attempting to damage or otherwise tear out its spine. The flesh giant didn't seem to be capable of tiring, his undead nature not giving him the largest weakness of the living.

In the stands the canine would continue to scribble down notes about the literal force of nature, mulling over different ideas on how to take it down. It didn't seem that the worms had really done anything thus far, but from the smell on the wind he could tell they had accomplished their main objective.

Suddenly, a few of the vines on the cat's back turned black: He had assimilated the blight, immunizing himself to the threat and turning it to his own purpose. (You can't poison an intelligent plant, and you can't rot a living one)

As the giant stumbled forward, the panther dodged across to the side; Being a speedy, lithe cat certainly had its advantages. The panther shot blackened vines through the side of the giant's mouth, lashing at the sinews that kept it semi-closed and at the gums that kept its fangs in place. At the same time, similarly black wood erupted from the panther's back and closed around the mud-skin, creating a hard, flexible shell over the cat. Thanks to the newly acquired blight, the vines could not be corrupted by the giant because they were already as corrupt as the giant himself.

The panther leapt up onto the giant's back and thick vines tangled around the giant's fangs and into his throat, clogging his windpipe and perforating his neck.