Shadow had let go just in time to avoid getting his hands cut off by Centurion's energy blades. Getting to his feet once more, Shadow positioned himself to defend against any attack that was sure to come, raising his shield to the sky, ready to bring it down onto the skulls of any ground attackers while protecting himself from ariel assults. Slowly he began to move toward the cathedral again.
Shadow knew he had delayed too long, he could sense Blade Racer's presence closing in fast, the pair of them able to sense each other as Shadow's concentration had slippedin battle, something he now had to work on. But he still had time, and began to run towards the cathedral doors, Shield still in its ready position, keeping a watch on Centurion for any movement.
One of the dragons swooped in low and fast, diving towards the running figure by the Cathedral with it's huge man-sized fangs opened wide ready to swallow the winged man. As it got closer, it spouted a breath of iron-melting fire, apparently preferring it's meals toasted and well-done. Hungrily, it snapped at the fiery man.
Back in the skies the second dragon felt threatened by the approach of another winged beast. It flared it's wings aggressively to scare it off and then lit it's infernal breath of fire as a warning. Eventually it grew restless and decided to attack full on. The speed at which it moved was impossible for a thing of it's size. At the blink of an eye, it had dove head-first into the oncoming beast, it's bony skull and flaming horns poised to sink deep into it's enemy's hide and flesh.
Shadow watched the Dragon dive towards him, and grinned to himself. This would work. He dove into the mouth of the fiery beast, his dark magic shield taking the brunt of the flames, and held himself in its mouth. From there he began to work his dark powers, corrupting the creature's mind and body, bending the Dragon to do his bidding, hoping against hope his armour would hold up against the heat.
He'd never tried this on a Dragon before, demons and hellhounds were one thing, they were the imbodiment of corrupt forces and so easy to manipulate. Even Humans had weak wills and often failed to resist his touch, now he just had to see if a Dragon had any darkness in its soul.
Ray jumped out of the way just in time to avoid a curtain of fire that made its way over the yard, turning the grass scorching black. He shook his head with a grunt and looked up at the situation, some chick beating up the other.. vampire? The doggies had turned on each other, some guy were chasing after another and some other guys were running about screaming orders. So what?
He had no idea how to tell friend from foe, except for one.. well two actually. The two dragons in the sky that circled, bombarding the battlefield with their fiery breath. That's way too easy. He awaited the next dive from one of the dragons, and when it happened he would try and fling a piece of the broken gravestones at the dragon to bring it down. But it could also mean he might find himself in a pinch if the plan didn't work...
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Reckless was more like it. Sarkh was no combat specialist, but he was old - and he hadn't gotten there by being a slouch in a fight. Moreover, he favored brain over brawn, which meant that he tended to have a plan or four when a situation carried the potential to turn...displeasing.|
Originally Posted by Pious
Back in the skies the second dragon felt threatened by the approach of another winged beast. It flared it's wings aggressively to scare it off and then lit it's infernal breath of fire as a warning. Eventually it grew restless and decided to attack full on. The speed at which it moved was impossible for a thing of it's size. At the blink of an eye, it had dove head-first into the oncoming beast, it's bony skull and flaming horns poised to sink deep into it's enemy's hide and flesh.
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Such as right now.
The storm pounced, a panther in the night, great gouts of roiling lightning alurch at their master's whim like coiled snakes poised to the key note of the flute's hymn. Like the link of brandy and liquor, they crashed down at Sarkh's attacker long before the hellspawned dragon ever came close to its sapphire-scaled counterpart.
Of course, that didn't mean Sarkh stopped there. Brutal as the assault of the lightning storm was, he knew it wouldn't have stopped him, and though his foe was clearly no storm dragon, he wasn't careless enough to assume his foe any less capable than himself. Thus he dove as well, snapping into a helical roll that quickly drew a line in the sand - or rather, in the rain.
He was forming a tornado...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
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Patsy dragged herself out from beneath the demon and hauled herself to her feet, though the dizzy spell that brought on coupled with the pounding headache contributed to by both herself and the demon made that a little difficult. After a couple of minutes, she was able to stand up straight without staggering. Much.|
Originally Posted by Pious
And another and another. The demon's body had gone limp as nerve endings in it's human brain had shut down from physical trauma. As it slowly lost all consciousness, the demon's full weight rested against the woman. It shifted back into it true goat-like form, twice the size of a human male, then collapsed with it's skull in the dirt and it's rear-end pointed disturbingly skywards, tail hung loosely to one side.
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Seeing that the demon was well and truly out for the count, the immortal girl proceeded to get to work on making sure he damn well stayed down by tearing the hellspawn's head off with her fingerless-gloved hands, a feat acheived by grabbing the goat-head by the horns and pushing against the demon's shoulders. A slow but satisfying process for someone who only a few minutes ago was having her face stoved in by the very creature she was now decapitating.
Patsy then picked herself back up onto her feet once more and carried the severed head around its owner's body not unlike a careless postal worker juggled a fragile package. Glancing down at the demon's exposed rear for a bit, her attention returned to the head then back again, almost as if calculating something in her own still-attached skull before she simply shrugged and lifted the head behind her. And then she...
((For the purposes of keeping things PG-13, cue one crash-cut to elsewhere accompanied by the classic Who "YEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!"))
Sam: "My mind is a swirling miasma of scintillating thoughts and turgid ideas."
Max: "Me too."
Stuff
"Oooh" the soldiers murmured, unable to help themselves from watching the young girl's fight with the demon end in a gory yet literal bottom's up. "Damn girl, that's na-ah-sty" one of them commented. "But you sure got the job done, I'll give you that."
Meanwhile up in the skies, the storm was growing unbearable for the fire dragon. The thunderous blast had done little to stop it's head-long charge but the sudden dive threw it's horned attack off course. Without warning, the tornado struck, sucking the trapped dragon into it's violent winds.
Back on the church grounds, a bright light had manifested just outside the Cathedral doors. It hovered there in mid-air for a while, drawing curious attention. Then something within started to move. The flash of a large steel blade dispersed the light momentarily, blinding all onlookers. In what could have been a blink of an eye, a glimmering sword shot out from within, the armoured fist of the Priest grasping it fiercely. Without landing, the Priest redirected his momentum and swung round to deliver a powerful roundhouse kick into the dragon's mouth, aimed directly at Shadow. Upon his entry, the Priest's sword pierced the open mouth of the dragon and it snapped shut, shrieking in agonising pain. Now the two men were locked in battle, deep within the beast's infernal gullet. Instinctively, or perhaps possessed under some dark magic, the hellspawn dragon took flight, rising high into the stormy skies.
Taken by surprise, Shadow failed to block the kick from Pious. He reeled from the pain but stood his ground. "Finally" Shadow exclaims, a tone of triumph in his voice "Lets test out that hply power of yours Priest". Shadow moves forward, using his dark powers to increase the power of his attacks, striking for the priests chest with the sharp points of his dark shield and aiming second punch at the priests face, striking in unison.
Priest stood firm, confident in the superiority of his holy armour to his foe's dark powers. The chest-strike hit, rebounded by sparks of bright light. The second punch, driven towards the Priest's face was deflected by his Knight's Helm, which again blew off bright sparks of white light. Priest advanced slowly towards his foe, bearing down on him at his enhanced height in this fully armoured form. He brought up his sword to the fiery man's eye level, emanating a light so bright it illuminated the organic walls of the dragon's insides. It was quite literally hot as hell in there and everything was shifting and shaking with the dragon's every move as it flew about the raging skies. "I have no time to waste matching strengths and competing with the likes of you. I am a man of God and my duty is to heal pain, not cause it. For this reason, I ask you to help us against these infernal beasts, or begone once and for all." Heavily shielded and buried in a huge armour accented by glowing glyphs, the Priest stood still, illuminating the chemically corrosive surroundings. "Let us not fight each other" he added, "please."
Shadow laughed, hard and deep and dark. He was actually impressed."You ask for my help against these monsters, yet help I have. Did i not turn the hell beasts against each other? Did I not dive into the mouth of a dragon to distract it from your cathedral and pit it against its brother? I came to see the might of this world's incorruptible Pious and I must say, you don't disapoint." Shadow was calm as he spoke, showing no sign the heat effected him.
"Perhaps it is time however, to show you the strength of your foe." And with that, Shadow let forth a roar that made the dragon shake, finally belching sending both men out in a pillar of fire. Shadow hovered in the air, smoking slightly."let's have some fun!"
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Sarkh had to admit, this took him by surprise. Not that he ever would, and especially not to Harlem, but his foe's capabilities very much took him aback. He'd expected the energies of the lightning storm to be less effective than on, say, a human - after all, fire and electricity had more than a few things in common - but not that the fire dragon would be outright immune.|
Originally Posted by Pious
Meanwhile up in the skies, the storm was growing unbearable for the fire dragon. The thunderous blast had done little to stop it's head-long charge but the sudden dive threw it's horned attack off course. Without warning, the tornado struck, sucking the trapped dragon into it's violent winds.
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Then again, perhaps it was but a protection spell. In that case, it probably wouldn't last long. Lightning storms had this nasty habit of tossing out generous amounts of those vicious bolts after all, and not just one. They'd keep coming until Sarkh said to stop.
Not that he had the patience for that.
Fortunately, an opportunity thereto presented itself stante pede. After all, the former wasn't all that had taken the sapphire-scaled dragon aback. In stark contrast to the lightning storm's ineffectiveness, the tornado seemed greatly more harmful than expected. Sarkh had thought his opponent a stronger flyer than that. Then again, from what Harlem had said, the fire dragon stemmed from the local underworld, and he somewhat doubted chasing sparkballs through the flux vortex of a lightning plant was a regular pastime there.
And that Sarkh could use.
A flick of his will, a twist of the lines, and a snow storm joined the howl of the tornado and the fury of the lightning storm, robbing the fire dragon of lift and sending it careening down to earth, the soaked soil of the cemetery slurping stickily about Sarkh's foe upon impact, the sapphire-scaled Cerosian setting down softly not far away.
He set Harlem upon the ground, then proceeded to reach into a pocket of his harness while addressing the fire dragon loudly, so as to overcome the howl of wind, rain, and now ice that raged about his foe, "I don't expect you to know this, but where I come from, it's customary to state one's name and terms at the declaration of a challenge! As you didn't, I'll extend you the courtesy of asking: who are you and why do you challenge me...?!"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Strolling away from the remains of the demon, Patsy got to work straightening out the buns in her hair.
"Transaction complete." the immortal cheerfully declared with a satisfied smirk before she then burst into whistling 'Popcorn' on her approach toward the church.
She stopped to look around and noted that the other demon was well out of the picture thanks to the other brawler and that the hellhounds were, for some reason, trying to kill one another rather than seek out their quarry. As for the dragons, she could just barely see the one, which seemed to be having a nasty case of bad guts, evident from the sight of it hurling out a couple of figures, one appearing to be a mere shadow and the other shining brighter than a nuke-powered Mag-Lite, from its mouth.
"Okay," Patsy sighed, placing one hand on her hip while casually pointing to the squabbling hellhounds with the other. "Anyone fancy helpin' me feed the dogs, then?"
Sam: "My mind is a swirling miasma of scintillating thoughts and turgid ideas."
Max: "Me too."
Stuff
Ray gave off a bemused grunt when he failed to get the dragons attention, instead he had taken notice to Shadow and Pious fight in the sky
"Aw no fair. Why does he get t' 'ave all the friggin' fun 'round 'ere?" Just then he turned his head as he was within earshot of the other female fighter:
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With a sly grin he made his way over to her, positioning himself fairly close to her for a first meeting|
Originally Posted by Crazy_Dragon
"Okay, anyone fancy helpin' me feed the dogs, then?"
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"Hey baby, y'feelin' lonely?"
The Centurion had seen the emergence of Pious and smiled.
As a time traveller he tried his best not to interfere with the flow of events except those he thought needed changing for the futures betterment.
Once Pious had seemed to gain his former strength back he decided to hang back from the fight.
Of course he would intervene if needed but for now, he decided to let things progress on their own.
He hovered back to the ground, moving to pick up his cape, he switched off his high tech blades and placed them back in his belt.
Throwing his cloak around him he watched the sky, two giant dragons seemingly battle overhead was not something he had the pleasure of witnessing often....or at all!
After a few minutes of watching the sky he turned towards Patsy as she spoke.
Looking over at the hell hounds he unsheathed two blades attached to his back, walking towards them he got within a metre of the hounds before sprinting forwards, slicing at any limbs or vulnerable parts he could.
http://union.virtueverse.net/wiki/The_Thunderar - My main, under construction
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"Nee way, hun." Patsy answered, rolling her eyes. "And those five words alone are settin' off alarm bells that you're not me type anyways."|
Originally Posted by Sniper_Three
With a sly grin he made his way over to her, positioning himself fairly close to her for a first meeting
"Hey baby, y'feelin' lonely?" |
The immortal girl watched the swordsman rush off to slice up the hellhounds.
"Now there's a guy that knows his priorities." she said, charging forth to go add her contribution to grinding the dogs' faces into the dirt. "Might wanna consider takin' a leaf out of his book, like!"
Sam: "My mind is a swirling miasma of scintillating thoughts and turgid ideas."
Max: "Me too."
Stuff
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The armoured priest, still without his power would most likely have fallen to his death following ejection from the dragon's bowels, had it not been for his holy and blessed blade, the Sword of Leviticus. Pious hung there, clutching the floating sword tightly for his dear life but tried to show little other evidence to suggest he himself could not yet fly again, lest his weaknesses be made obvious for all to see. Casually, he lifted himself up and then sat atop the flat of his blade, legs crossed, eyes fixed upon the figure before him. He took a moment to study him, and soon arrived at the simple conclusion that this man, this thing, had come only to fight him. A deep sadness washed over him, the sorrow clear to read in his deep brown eyes. When would it ever end, he wondered.|
Originally Posted by Blade Racer
...a roar that made the dragon shake, finally belching sending both men out in a pillar of fire. Shadow hovered in the air. "Let's have some fun!"
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Probably due to his innately naive predisposition, Priest could never truly understand why he had so many enemies and why they all seemed so dedicated to see him dead; whether that be through years-long assassination attempts, power depletion, or a challenge to 'come out and fight'. It wasn't just demon either, but people too, whom he was duty-bound as a minister and a hero to protect and serve. First was his sister-in-Law Alicia Barzini-Hunter aka Pistol, then the supersoldier Übermensch Kahn, his own brother Captain Harlem, then of course Ray Hammerfall, tricked by the utterly evil Lord Memphis, who took the Priest's power and nearly his life, and now there was this guy calling himself The Shadow. It occurred to Pious that possibly, his only true friends were the Nighthunters.
The Priest was a pacifist by nature and through religion. It was difficult for him to comprehend why the world of Man was so fixated on violence and bloodsport. Sure the former was a part of his job as a hunter of demons but that was an excusable necessity and always as a last resort. Even then it was only a small fraction of his power used. By definition, he was merely an empath -- extremely sensitive to, and burdened by other people's pain and suffering. He chose a life of helping people reach spiritual comfort and the atonement of sins, while using his God-given powers to save the world and rescue people from natural disasters. He tackled demons using biblical magic. Only once, and never again would he abandon his virtues and cause harm onto another. It just wasn't in him.
"I don't know who you are Shadow," Priest began, climbing to his feet and balancing on his sword, "but I appreciate all that you've done here this day, for Dark Astoria and for my church. However, I simply cannot do for you what you want me to do. Too often, I get called out for a fight like this and even then I must turn the other cheek. Forgetting the fact that you just foiled my plan to slay the beast from within itself, is it not enough that we have fought with dragons and demons, side-by-side this day? Must we beat each other near death too? I am sorry Shadow, but I am a man at peace -- a monk who's life has been devoted to the work of God. Look around you. I live in a monastery with other monks. I dare not forsake my sacred oaths, neither shall I be corrupted into fighting with you. Not here, not today, not ever." With that, Priest collected his sword and bowed respectively to the figure. "Now, there are yet more dragons below us, friend."
Shadow gave Pious a glance before charging at the dragon. Using his shield to protect agaonst any fire, he used the points on the shield to create a spear of dark energy aimed at the dragon's heart.
Shadow had given up trying to get Pious to use his powers. The man was nothing like his alternate version. This Pious seemed far too pacafist, it seemed the rumours of the Nighthunters leader being all powerful were false. This fact urked Shadow and he turned that to a rage that made his spear sharper.
As the Shadow moved off to charge against the dragon, Priest let out a relieved sigh and using hand gestures, marked himself with an invisible cross. He turned his focus on the battlefield and watched to see what had transpired. The second dragon had been trapped in what appeared to be an icy tornado, being spoken to by another yet very different dragon who the Priest Corps seemed to be working alongside. The demons had been felled and now the hell hounds were being seen to. Strategically, he was better needed there in the skies, he would support Shadow against the airborne dragon.
The hell hounds, great big demonic dogs reaching chest-height, barked and gnarled violently at their human attackers, aiming their sabretooth fangs at vital organs as the armoured man in a cape swung in with his swords. A couple of the hounds lost their limbs and fell, howling in pain like house-trained pets.
The dragon who'd been trapped in a wall of icy winds heard it's opponent's words as clear as day, but was unable to respond. The dragon dug it's four powerful legs into the earth and dared to move forwards, making fierce eye contact with the other dragon. In it's fiery demonic eyes one could see the reflections of a tortured soul. Were it's mind to be read, it would tell a story of the captivity, enslavement and extinction of it's family and kin by the demon army. Suddenly, the beast reared up on it's hind legs, winged spread wide in a show of majestic pride. It pointed it's bony snout skywards and unleashed, with all the power it could muster, an explosive burst of fire and lighting from it's infernal lungs. It's rapidly beating heart could be seen glowing red hot through it's vulnerable underbelly, just as it's lowered itself back down on all fours. Not stopping, it continued to breath it's scorching fire, which was just about contained in the tornado. Then, the dragon directed it's exhale of burning hellfire upon the muddy earth beneath. Before long, he was completely consumed by magical fire, which probably shouldn't have survived inside a tornado. When the fire did die down, there was a great hole in the ground and the beast was nowhere to be seen.
Panicked, the soldiers yelled their commands and fired into the raging tornado, hoping to hit something that clearly was no longer there.
Meanwhile up in the skies, the airborne dragon was doing it's best to burn, toast and swallow the shadowy figure relentlessly stabbing at it's vulnerable heart. It rolled around in every direction, trying to evade the man attacks while unleashing it's own fiery blasts. Watching this happening, Priest found himself almost feeling sorry for the pursued dragon. He held nearby, hovering in the air with his sword and wondered just what to do.
The sapphire-scaled once more raised a brow, taking his fingers from his harness' pocket again while he bid the storms to cease. The tornado and snow storm alike dissipated, but he kept the lightning storm on 'standby', so to speak, just in case...well, that and he just enjoyed the rain.
He also extended his senses toward the hole in the ground. Was it but a crater, or an actual passage deep down into the earth? Moreover, if the former, had the fire dragon made use of it, or had it all just been a means to jaunt away to another plane or world? Or was it still here and had simply gone invisible? Maybe it had done something else entirely? Sarkh didn't much approve of shrinking, for example, but that didn't mean it was beyond him to consider.
Either way, what had happened...?
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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A bit dumfounded, Ray stood there for a moment as she charged off. It didn't take long before he clenched his fists with a determined look. "What, y'don't think -I- can take out a few stray dogs?!" he then proceeded to jump after her, into the fray "Lemme show ya!"
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Originally Posted by Crazy_Dragon
"Now there's a guy that knows his priorities." she said, charging forth to go add her contribution to grinding the dogs' faces into the dirt. "Might wanna consider takin' a leaf out of his book, like!"
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The Centurion decided to end the fight quickly and decisively, hoping to avoid anyone else getting hurt, though he was slightly curious how to woman was still alive after her fight.
As one of the hell hounds jumped up at him, he crossed his blades to keep it at bay, the razor sharp edges sliding into its skin was not enough to stop the snarling beast from gnashing its jaws in his face.
As it came closer to his face he had only one option, bringing his head back slightly he brought it forward on the hounds skull, knocking it backwards while cracking his visor.
He slashed at the ground with his sword, making a line in the earth, as another hound jumped at him, he jumped in the air, over the beast while keeping the tip of his blade in the floor, sliding it across the ground and making another line.
As the hell hounds ran around him, charging at him and aiming to bite at any body part exposed he kept dodging, slashing at the ground creating lines in the earth, ducking as they jumped at him, dodging to the left and right continuously slashing at the floor while seemingly making no effort to actually attack the hounds.
He hovered up a little, low enough for the tip of his foot to slide across the ground as he hovered backwards. The hounds ran turned towards him, fangs bared and claws extended.
He outstretched his arm to signal for Ray and Patsy to halt their attack, raising his hand, blade outstretched towards the hounds.
"This ends...INCENDIA!"
With one word the lines he had drawn with his swords glowed a bright red, revealing a magical symbol in the floor, the lines seemingly encasing all of the hounds within.
A tower of fire rose up from the symbol before going silent for a split second, time seemingly standing still right before the ground beneath the symbol exploded, a pillar of fire rising from the earth.
http://union.virtueverse.net/wiki/The_Thunderar - My main, under construction
It was perhaps a good thing that Patsy was still far enough away to skid to a halt when she saw the signal from the Centurion to hang fire, long enough to realise what the swordsman was preparing to do. And that she'd rather not get caught in any splash the imminent explosion may cast out from its epicentre.
"WoahWoahWoahWoahWoahGETDOWN!!" she called over to the oncoming Ray as she swung round and promptly hit the deck with all due haste.
Sam: "My mind is a swirling miasma of scintillating thoughts and turgid ideas."
Max: "Me too."
Stuff
The force of the earth erupting sent the dogs off their feet, but the fire did little to hurt them. Menacing as a pack of wolves, they advanced out of the inferno, fire dancing about inside their eyes and leaking through their mouths as they drooled. The low growls grew louder with each step, taunting the heroic trio into action.
In the skies, Priest was still unsure of what to do, but his mind was soon to be set and the dragon locked eyes with him. With impossible speed, it charged at him, fangs bare. Priest hesitated only for a moment and it almost cost him his life. Everything went dark for a brief second, then there was an unbearable heat, followed by flaming balls of hellfire, coming from every direction. He'd been swallowed and was being cooked alive inside the unholy furnace of the fiery beast.
Back in the cemetery, both the great technological dragon and the supporting soldiers were perplexed as to where the hellspawn beast had gone. Cautiously, the armed men circled the hole. After close inspection, it dawned on them that this hole was a tunnel into the earth. Should they follow? What would await them below? They talked between themselves but were saved the effort of having to travel to Hell by what could only be described as an earthquake. The very grounds beneath their feet began to shake, erupting with a pillar of fire which blasted forth angry dragon, like a great organic bullet from a volcanic barrel. The beast careened towards the storm dragon with unearthly force, it's fiery hide-piercing horns locked for battle and poised to stab it's foe straight through the heart.
The Centurion lowered his arms, standing still for a moment, his face expressionless.
Raising his arms up he thrust both of his blades into the ground, reaching behind his back he took out two sai's.
He turned to look at Patsy and Ray again, smirking slightly.
"Hell hounds and fire...who knew?"
He turned back towards the hounds, spinning his the sai in his right hand.
If he wasn't here trying to defend Pious, one might even think he tried to make them stronger, if only to present more of a challenge to himself.
He rushed forwards, jumping into the air his aimed his weapons down, hoping to pierce the skull of the nearest hound.
http://union.virtueverse.net/wiki/The_Thunderar - My main, under construction
But he also felt quite like...and yet...
Still, he certainly did talk that way.
"I'm still deciding." the sapphire-scaled dragon's toothy smirk returned as he pitched forward and began to pick up speed again, "It takes two to start a fight. Let's just see what the other side has to say first, mh?"
He didn't actually wait for an answer of course, instead gradually closing the distance to the closer of the other two dragons, fully intent on just asking him, her, or it what intent there was to be here. After all, neither of them seemed to be doing much right now, other than presenting a collision hazard to passing heroes of the flying sort, and that very same thing could be said of just about any tall building within the walls of Dark Astoria - as well as Adamastor, of course...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters