|
Post by Fantasy Script on Oct 4, 2015 3:26:43 GMT -5
Script almost crashed into Max, again as she stopped, his lungs already burning lightly from lugging around Lucky and running almost nonstop. He took the moment of respite to catch his breath, though he had to wonder why they had stopped again, what had she…?
Then he noticed. How had he not seen that? Admittedly he wasn’t used to forestry areas and more accustomed to the tundra around Stalliongrad, but what was hulking towards them was way too big to not have seen. Apparently they had angered something. Something big and mean, that really should have been left alone.
Script was turning to run before Max had even issued the command. This was not something he wanted to tangle with. Shouldering Lucky in a more manageable position he let his hoofs tear gauges into the ground in a mad attempt to get as much speed and as much distance between himself and that… that… THING as he could.
‘Slayer or no’ he thought ‘no pony should face that thing alone.’
Heck, even the three of them, in his humble opinion, stood no chance against that beast. It was too big, too angry and too much like a force of nature. It was safer to run, if they could manage even that. It tore through everything in its path as if it was wet paper. It rampaged ever onwards undeterred spurred on by a goal that only it could understand. It was absolutely terrifying to behold.
“What in Tartarus is that thing?!”
Script bellowed, desperate, afraid.
|
|
|
Post by Red Charge on Oct 4, 2015 3:40:14 GMT -5
"Behemoth!" Lucky yelled over his shoulder, "They eat dragons for breakfast!" He said, fear very, very apparent in his voice. "In the name of the sisters run faster!"
Several Diamond Dogs came into view, coming in from the crater-side to try and intercept them. However upon seeing the behemoth they immediately turned tail and noped out of there and into the ground.
They kept running, trying to put as many trees between them and the behemoth as they could, desperately using up all of their energy in a mad dash to escape. However the behemoth was more than capable of catching up and keeping pace with all of them, being bigger and more endurant.
"Oh stars above, we're dead, we're all dead!" Lucky cried over Script's shoulders. Running was pointless, the behemoth was now close enough that Script could feel its breath on his fur, could feel the tremor in each of its steps, it had caught up to them now and they were Behemoth munch. "Oh, Entropy, Harmony, Chronos, Galaxia, Celestia, Luna, PLEASE SAVE US!"
BOOM!
As if in answer to Lucky's prayer, the massive sounds of devastation were heard in the distance above them, but it didn't matter, they were just prey now. Prepared to feel the wrath of the creature on him, Lucky shut his eyes tight. But a loud grunt drew their attention back to the monster. Something had fallen on it, a red dragon? That's right! Equestria had a dragon! They had a dragon and it's come to save them! "Thank you!" Lucky thanked the forces that had answered his prayers with tears.
Excited that this match just got more even, Max turned around, only to have her face fall as the dragon lay limp on the ground, by its wounds it was clear it had not swooped down to kill the Behemoth, but rather fell down, dead, after being blasted out of the sky. Fortunately however, the large meal was more than enough for the behemoth, it grabbed its limp body by the neck and began dragging it back deeper into the forest to do God knows what to it.
After running for a while longer, not daring to stop, Max finally collapsed on the forest floor, then immediately began swearing most vulgar.
|
|
|
Post by Fantasy Script on Oct 4, 2015 4:13:04 GMT -5
Script didn’t need to be told twice. His body burned, his lungs hurt something fierce and his heart felt as if it wanted to burst right out of his chest and run away alongside him. He powered past that, adrenaline and the fierce need to survive kept him going long past what his body should have been capable off. But it wasn’t enough. It just wasn’t good enough. The Behemoth was keeping pace with them, easily, and catching up slowly and steadily. It was probably playing with them.
“Shut up Lucky!”
The incessant yelling into his ear was not helping as he tried to not stumble over a root or something. That would be one ignominious end for the enchanter. Trampled to death after stumbling over his own feet. He needed to concentrate on running, hoof before hoof as fast as possible without falling. That was all that mattered at this point.
The big boom behind them almost made him tumble end over heel and roll over the ground. Thankfully he didn’t. He couldn’t imagine what that would have done to Lucky’s phials. He really didn’t want to know what had happened now, he just kept running, he didn’t want to die. Not now, not like this. He hadn’t reached his goal yet had he? It couldn’t be over quite yet!
Lucky’s exclamation of gratitude threw his thoughts into a tumble. Slowing down and turning around he was startled to see a big red dragon, which apparently had crashed right into the Behemoth. What was even going on anymore? Max looked elated, apparently happy that their fate had changed, but her face fell quickly enough. Surveying what was going on, Script noticed that the dragon was riddled with wounds and wasn’t moving. Apparently it had died, or at least been severely wounded, before it crashed down here.
Thankfully the Behemoth seemed to prefer dragon meat over a pony snack. Script didn’t care. He just ran again. He wanted as much distance between himself and the beast as he could reasonable manage. When Max finally signaled a stop he simply collapsed, throwing up what contents his stomach was holding as the exertion he had put his body through finally caught up with him. His lungs were on fire, his heart was hurting and he could taste blood and bile on his tongue. But he was alive, that had to count for something right? And he even managed to save his friend.
|
|
|
Post by Red Charge on Oct 4, 2015 4:27:21 GMT -5
Lucky let out a loud scream as he flew head over hooves, carried by the momentum of Fantasy's movements, he flew through the air, landing in a straight line, digging into the earth as he did, his rump high in the air and face buried in the dirt.
"Ouch."
For a while, all the trio could do was just breathe, with Max continuing her swearing for a while. Eventually she too calmed down and just breathed quietly. The sounds of battle seemed very far off at that time, like they were on another plane of existence. It was hard to read Max's expression as she looked down at the falling leaves, gently floating on minute air currents towards the ground. The sky above was an impenetrable grey mass of clouds, a combination of battlefield smoke and incoming rain clouds. "It's going to rain soon." She said.
She picked herself off the ground, her muscles aching and sighed, "Gotta get that powder." She started walking slowly towards the tree line, trying to get a grip on their position. Lucky's head peeked over the mound of dirt he had created in his crash, then slowly crawled over to Fantasy, downing a vial down his throat. He didn't feel invigorated, but he felt better, his stomach and lungs settled and his mind calmed down.
"You alright best bud?" He asked, patting Script on the back fondly.
|
|
|
Post by Fantasy Script on Oct 4, 2015 4:41:10 GMT -5
Script just lay there for a long time, just breathing in the earthy scent of the ground and the fallen leafs. Just breathing and being alive. It was a nice feeling. Distantly he heard Max announce the coming rain. It would make a right mess of everything if it started raining now. Mud, dirt everywhere and a nice slick mix of ashes and water that would cling to everything. Fun all the way. He didn’t care right now. The ground was nice and soft and didn’t shake and tremble while a huge beast raged about.
It was way too nice.
He let Lucky fuss about his muzzle, pouring something down his gob. Tasted like alchemy, that is, kind of off but meh. The effect was immediate, he didn’t feel like a spring leaf, but he certainly felt a lot better. He slowly rose to his hoofs, took a swig of his flask to get rid of the aftertaste of his stomach’s rebellion and turned towards Lucky.
“Feel like Shoot.” He snorted. “But yeah, I’m alright. Thanks mate.”
Watching Max move onwards the bigger stallion sighed.
“Let’s go, can’t let the Lady walk unaccompanied through the woods.”
He gave Lucky a look over, ending on his nose.
“You got a little something, around here.”
He pointed at the whole of Lucky’s face, his lips tugging into a tired smirk.
“Nice landing by the way.”
|
|
|
Post by Red Charge on Oct 5, 2015 6:43:23 GMT -5
"Can you tell I practiced?" Lucky asked with a smirk, nudging him, "Thanks for the ride." The two followed Max through the woods and the thicket, observing as she stopped along the tree line. Looking through the bushes they noticed the knockout powder supplies. Dozens of carts loaded with small pouches, carefully measured, carefully sealed. Of course, if one of these gets a tear at the wrong moment, it could have a devastating effect.
Lucky threw his head into his satchel and pulled out three plague doctor masks. "What in the world?" Max said, examining the one he hoofed over to her.
"Well as the brilliant strategic minds of our century decided not to provide us with gas masks, I made these in a hurry. These are not commercial grade filtration devices, but they should do us better than what we have. In addition, he said, as Max sniffed the inside of the birdlike snout of the mask, "It has stimulating spices and herbs inside that should counter the effects of the powder should we be affected, reducing our downtime to seconds, maybe minutes at worst."
"My nose is burning." Max said, putting on the mask bravely, "But this is brilliant Lucky. You boys want to see why they call me Max Force?" She asked, though her face completely obscured by the plague doctor mask, it was obvious she was smiling underneath.
|
|
|
Post by Fantasy Script on Oct 5, 2015 9:35:16 GMT -5
Trotting through the forest, Script enjoyed the slow and easy pace, without the extra luggage on his back. He sure was glad that he had been lugging around a behemoth of steel before he had gotten this finer, more elegant sword, else he wasn’t sure he would have been able to carry Lucky as well as he did. But that hardly mattered now, they were alive and back on track as it seemed. Surveying the satchels that were piled high all around in the little carts, Script couldn’t help but wonder if this was all worth it. So much waste, simply to kill one another. It was rather sad, if he was honest with himself.
Well, this stuff was a lot of trouble, good thing they got to it and could destroy it before it spelled the doom of a lot of brave ponies.
Taking the mask Lucky passed him and slipping it on he couldn’t help but sneeze at the strong scents coming from the herbs inside.
“Kinda reminds me of some stuff they smoked back home. Nasty stuff.”
He tried to get his nose accustomed to the strong smell, sneezing here and there.
“Sheesh… as long as it helps eh?”
He rose an eyebrow, not that Max could see it, at her comment. The enchanter had to admit he was curious what the Slayer was able to do. He had seen feats he hadn’t though possible from a normal pony, he was curious to see how she had earned her nickname.
“By all means, ma’am. Show us what you’ve got.”
This, he was sure, would be rather spectacular.
|
|
|
Post by Red Charge on Oct 6, 2015 0:24:35 GMT -5
Max grinned back at them, "These masks better work, alchemist." She said to Lucky, both unicorns could feel her siphoning ether into her horn, oh what devastation she was about to unleash! They saw her body brace itself, her muscles tensing, her eyes intently focused on her target, the middle wagon leading the knockout powder pouches. The cart was flanked by dozens of warriors, the security was impossibly high. What did those poor dogs have in store for them?
And then she fired off a tiny inconspicuous orb, it slowly meandered over to its destination and hovered there quietly.... and nothing happened.
"Uh, Max? I think you got the wrong spell." Lucky said, brow furrowed.
"No, no, it just needs the other one." Max said, firing off another.
Immediately as the two orbs came within touching distance the began spinning in a frenzy around themselves, rising high in the air, the amount of propolsion force they generated was enormous. Within seconds they were no longer looking at a convoy, but at a tornado. Within a few seconds the earthy colored gusts were dyed with the gold of the torn knockout powder pouches, spreading them in a wide radius around. Those poor dogs that didn't get sucked into the tornado, became instantly incapacitated by the knockout powder snowing on them.
Unfortunately, Lucky's masks did not provide for long and the trio fell out cold. They awoke only several minutes later, now staring at the still wreckage and bodies of knocked out diamond dogs.
"You slayers know your stuff." Lucky said.
"Why can't I move?" Max asked.
"Seems like the herbs are enough to keep us awake, but the body's stiff as a corpse." Lucky said, "Didn't account for that."
"We need a rescue before more dogs come. Can you use magic, Script?"
|
|
|
Post by Fantasy Script on Oct 6, 2015 3:15:21 GMT -5
Fascinated the enchanter watched as Max charged her horn, captivated he watched the muscles play over her body, the longer he spent around he the more attractive the mare became to him. She was beautiful in her own right, and just the type Script preferred after all. He almost chuckled as the anticipation of some mayor destruction bubbled within him, like a merry brew of chaos almost spilling over. This was going to be grand!
Or maybe not. He almost collapsed from surprise, he hadn’t realized how tense his body had become waiting for her spell to unleash its destruction. Instead they were treated to the sight of a miniscule orb fluttering about like a lazy Parasprite – and it didn’t even DO anything. That was kind of boring. Had she done something wrong? Would a slayer actually flub a spell like that?
“The other one…?” Script parroted a bit flabbergasted. What was another spell going to do? Admittedly, binary spells were, as far as he knew, a rather fearsome thing. Still… a little orb? Would it explode? Compress into high density mass and suck everything in? No instead another orb floated lazy towards the other. This was getting somewhat ridiculous.
Then it started.
“Well, now we’re cooking with fire!” He exclaimed in hushed awe as the two orbs suddenly began spinning like crazy, going faster and faster while sucking in air at an alarming rate. Soon they weren’t looking at two orbs, but a honest to Luna tornado. It was absolutely amazing. The havoc it wreaked was beautiful to behold, knockout powder flying everywhere, dusting everything like golden snow.
Sadly the masks didn’t quite manage the job.
When he finally came to again Script was lying with his face in the mud and as stiff as a board. That really wasn’t a very nice experience. Being trapped in your own body was, if he thought about it, quite a terrifying thing, though he was sure it would wear off… he really hoped it would wear off.
A rescue sounded about right.
“I can try, though I wonder… whatcha wanna do? Flare? Admittedly I am not the most proficient spell caster.”
A Flare would get them attention, surely, but with their luck as it was, probably the wrong sort. He wondered what Max had planned. Even still he tried to see whether he could access magic still or if something was interfering.
|
|
|
Post by Red Charge on Oct 7, 2015 2:57:30 GMT -5
"You remember that green gem thing Bitter was talking about?" Max asked, "Do that, Team Chimera will come get us to safety."
"You know who those are?"
"Know? I helped train them."
"Oh?"
"They're some of the best the Slayer Project has seen. An outstanding team working together. They almost single handedly stopped the Nightmare attack on Canterlot, captured the leader, Colonel Bitter and his bodyguards... Even when Scimitar Razorwing and General Gallop could not. Since then they've been training each in Equestria's most elite units, then brought together to create the ultimate team. Also I served with one of them, back when he was a colonel." Her eyes had a certain look to them, that look you get when talking about someone you care for... more than a friend, unrequited love perhaps?
"Can you just shoot the Dang gem?"
|
|
|
Post by Fantasy Script on Oct 7, 2015 12:18:10 GMT -5
Raking his brain for a moment he suddenly remembered the briefing and what Bitter had told them to do. A team of slayers sounded about right, right now. If they didn’t get them out of this mess, nothing would. Collecting the ether in his horn and shaping the spell carefully, making sure that it was green and not some other color through some random fluctuation he let loose the simple construct, shooting it up as good as possible in his current condition. Hopefully they would be out of this mess soon.
Once he was done though, there was something else that bothered him. The enchanter couldn’t help but notice the fond note and look Max held as she remembered the time with that colonel. That pony was probably more than a friend to her, though whether he was a past lover, her current boyfriend or something else he couldn’t even begin to speculate. A woman like that probably would have a slew of admirers anyways. A gruff, grump northerner like him had little prospect of enticing a military pony like her, did he?
Later on Script would blame the fading adrenalin, the ridiculousness of the situation at large and severe fatigue for saying the words that tumbled out of his mouth in that very moment.
“Hey Max, you want to go out for dinner once this is over?"
After saving his hide several times and making sure they all came out alive out of this mess, he kind of wanted to at least repay her somewhat. Worst came to worst, well she couldn’t move at the moment so she wasn’t able to slap him silly. And if her anger propelled her into motion now, well, even better.
|
|
|
Post by Red Charge on Oct 7, 2015 17:03:28 GMT -5
Max didn't respond to his question. He could tell Lucky was looking at him.
Within moments they could see the armored hooves of several ponies, but not more. As their masks were removed one by one, they finally succumbed to the effects of the knockout powder, losing consciousness.
They would only regain it after the end of the battle.
|
|