Quest A Slaughter in the Jungle[Open]

[Talus]

Talus let out a curse as the ice swept forth from Hal.

He had thought the other lad would be able to control his power better than this. He'd shown he could back in the training yards, but here? Here the power swept forth like a plague. It consumed trees, plants, Elves, and everything else in it's wake.

His gaze flickered to one of the Elves that had been caught in the tidal wave of ice. A solid block of ice had encapsulated the knife-ear, eating into his flesh and freezing him into place just as they had planned.

Yet the plan was not for them to get stuck. "Luther run!"

The nobling wasn't one for flight, but right now he was wearing heavy armor and had little chance to actually get away unless he moved now.

As for Talus?

His fingers scrunched into fists, and then suddenly his body became a ghostly wisp.

He did not say where he was, no. His own abilities always interacted...interestingly with the magics of others. That was not something he would risk now. Instead the ghostly afterimage of Talus seemed to jump, catching a tree branch and flinging itself a dozen feet high before the Apprentice appeared to step into reality once more.

Sweat covered his brow, one eye filled with a deep crimson red.

 

[Ryan of Tel Idris]

Busy staring through the mess of burning trees, Luther ignored Talus and only noticed the blast of ice when he felt the air drop fifty degrees. And by then it was far too late.

“Hal you fu-”

The wave of expanding frost magic caught up with Luther even as he tried to run. The cold wrapped around his leg like a hand, encasing the entirety of his left boot in ice so clear it looked crystal, but the magic faded before it could reach the rest of him.

Swearing vociferously, and muttering something about giving a baby troll magic and a hammer, Luther hacked at the ice ensconcing his boot and affixing it to the ground with his sword, sending up chips of ice.

 

[Harry]

Hal strained more to control the ice than he did to cast it. He could feel as magic continued to uncontrollably surge within him, flowing forth from his hands in a rapidly increasing wave. The screams of elves stopped, but the ice did not.

The growing ice slowed and eventually stopped before it consumed his friends. Hal was half-encased in his own wave of ice, only his upper body and arms from the elbow-up were exposed. His body was numb, but he could feel as his head pounded.

He hoped that the elves had been taken care of, or at least fled at the sight of his magic. Otherwise, he would prove to be an easy target.

 

[Arianrhod]

Arianrhod stared in horror.

The heat of the fire had been extinguished, only a few small flames lingering. It had been replaced by white. Had she not seen it with her own eyes, she'd have sworn she was back in the cold forest of the Northlands and not hundreds of leagues south.

Her breath came out in steam, the temperature frigid. She would have welcomed the cold normally if it wasn't the result of some human magick. The screams had cut off suddenly, she didn't know if she was the only one left.

She broke her feet free from the ice, rising with grim determination. Her smile widened as she saw the humans had been hit with it too. Clumsy in their plate armour, some of them were half frozen, ice covering their lower bodies.

Arianrhod drew a long knife and stepped forward, even her lithe steps causing the ice to crack. She broke into a run, diving with a feral howl on the dreadlord nearest to her.

(OOC: First come, first served)

 

[Talus]

Vision in his right eye was hazy. The strain of using phase-walking for such a long time had burst a blood vessel, blood pooling beneath his iris. Talus blinked, his face scrunching as he tried to spot what was going on below.

He saw Luther chipping away at the ice, he caught sight of Hal in the center of a newly created field of ice, and then he realized that he could not see Sierra.

His gaze quickly shifted through the jungle, covering his bloody eye to pull some of the haze from his vision. Fingers scrunched as he spotted her. She was laying on the field of ice, her leg encased in a bright blue cast. "Fuck."

Talus swore, and then he spotted something moving.

There was a soft crack as an Elf charged forward, a long knife drawn as the knife-ear prepared to attack Sierra.

A string of curses left him, and then Talus did something foolish. Fingers tightened around his blade and once again the young Apprentice turned into a wisp. He moved from the branch like a shadow, darting through the jungle without wind or weight blocking him.

Before the elf could reach Sierra Talus stepped between them, his blade darting upward as he returned to reality and caught the Elf's knife with his sword.

 

[Arianrhod]

Arianrhod hissed, spitting at the figure who appeared in front of her.

She leaned on her blade, putting more pressure before her leg shot out, trying to sweep the legs from under the human. She didn't waste time lingering, successful or not she was back out of sword reach, circling her quarry. She swapped knife hand easily, smiling at the human.

The next attack came without warning. One moment the elf was flashing bloody teeth at him, the next she was a blur of movement, striking forward like a snake.

 

[Talus]

Talus quite literally hopped backward as the elf lashed out with her leg, skipping over the appendage as though it were a length of rope.

His blade circled his hand for a brief moment as the woman swapped the hand her blade sat in.

One good eye followed her, the other half squinting as he stared. Lips thinned, and then she dashed forward again with her blade flickering like a viper. A curse escaped him, and once again he knew there was no way to win fairly.

A breath filled him.

He put up no defense as the elf swung her sword, but instead once again tapped into his magic. As the blade went to cut him, it instead found nothing but air.

The sword passed through Talus as though he were nothing, cutting through him and ending on the other side without even leaving a trace. Then suddenly his blade swept upwards towards the Elf's abdomen, aiming to cut her in half.

 

[Arianrhod]

Arianrhod had braced for the impact but her blade met nothing. She stumbled (or as much as an elf could) forward, caught a fraction off balance before her innate equilibrium took over. Her teeth flashed in a snarl of frustration.

Something flared in her senses. A warning. Danger. Her eyes caught a flicker and practiced reflexes took over. She twisted back and to the side. Fast as the elf was, she wasn't fast enough. A line of red hot pain surged across her stomach. Another inch or so and she'd have been disembowelled.

The elf stumbled back, one hand dropping to touch the hot blood, steam rising from the wound in the polar temperatures. Her grip tightened on her blade, warier now as she watched her opponent. Lips moved silently in a mantra, trying to block out the pain for even a few more minutes.

 

[Talus]

Talus looked like he was about to drop.

Sweat fell from his brow, one eye was almost completely red, and an odd paleness had taken onto his skin that made it nearly translucent.

The strength of his muscles was slowly failing him, the weight of his sword proving too much for him to even hold it aloft in a defensive stance. His good eye glanced around, head turning back for just a moment to see an unconscious Sierra.

He couldn't spot Hal or Luther.

"I'll give you a chance." His voice somehow managed to keep from trembling. "All your friends are dead. Run now and you'll get off this island."

Talus doubted that the elf would accept his offer, but he was pretty sure he'd lose this fight if it kept going.

He had to try something.

 

[Sierra]

The block of ice that encased her foot was already halfway melted. So was the ice that cradled her body from where she'd fallen. The hot, humidity of the jungle was starting to win out. Rivlets of cold water now soaked across her hair, clothes and back. A heady cloud of steam rising up from around her form.

 

[Harry]

At the source of Hal's icy blast was a mound of ice, and the Apprentice was half-encased in it. When he heard the sounds of battle resume, he immediately began to struggle to escape his cold jail.

The ice began to thaw, and he kicked at the ice that held his arms, chipping away at it. Eventually, he managed to pry himself free. His arms were numb. He felt a biting cold in the parts of his body that maintained its senses. He clumsily placed one hand on the mound of ice, using it to keep his balance as he weakly walked around it. As he came around, he saw Talus facing down an elf. Composing himself, he marched forward, towards Talus' back.

Hal was visibly weak, yet tried his best to cover it up. His skin was pale, with blue lips. Despite the heat beginning to melt the ice that covered the surroundings, the Apprentice showed no signs of warmth. Frost still covered his arms and legs, and the sweat he had worked up in battle was frozen to his skin.

He was unarmed, and his uncontrolled use of magic pushed his body to its limit. Still, he hoped his mere presence was enough to deter the wounded elf from fighting onward. Their victory, even with two, was not certain.

 

[Laqueta Hala Kritanta]

Laqueta pulled her fur cloak closer to her body as she pulled her leather boots free from the ice encasing them. The ice cracked briefly before shattering. Dead elves lay scattered around her. Many were shot from friendly fire it seemed unless the opposing group had archers as well. She had kind of been lost in her thoughts.

She flicked her index finger up, a single amber flame licking her skin. An unnatural warmth radiated from the fire. Her body warmed up immediately as it gently dwindled to a small flicker of light.

 

[Ryan of Tel Idris]

Luther finally managed to hack apart the ice encasing his leg with his sword. Limping, holding his sword in his one good hand, the apprentice made his way over to where he saw Sierra, steam curling from her form. A neat trick. He would have tried to blast the ice away with lightning if he wasn't worried about blowing his own leg off.

Finesse was still to be learned.

"Where's Talus?" he said, voice reverberating inside his helmet.

 

[Arianrhod]

The elf eyed her prey with narrowed eyes.

The human was fit to drop. He could barely hold his sword up and it looked like a strong breeze would knock him over. She was poised to spring forward and hack him down where he stood.

Another one of the humans trudged forward, looking to be on death's door. Young too but she could never tell their age. She could hear voices from further on, other humans had survived. Choose now, to kill this one or flee. The former, she was going to die too. The latter, she might yet live.

She spat blood on the floor. "I curse you" she told him in her language, the words surprisingly melodic. She made the sign against evil before turning and fleeing into the undergrowth. Within a few seconds it was like she had never even been there.

 

[Talus]

Talus managed to remain standing long enough for the Elf to turn around and disappear.

The moment she was out of view he felt his knees buckle from beneath him. He collapsed onto one knee with a solid thud, fingers letting go of his sword hand as he bent over and opened his mouth.

"BLAAAGH." Half the contents of his stomach spewed from Talus' lips.

He tried to take a breath, a desperate attempt to get some air, but before he could Talus threw up a second time and expelled the rest of whatever sat in his stomach. Fingers dug into the earth, the back of one gauntlet coming up to wipe his mouth.

Slowly the Apprentice pushed himself back, landing on his ass a foot away from a pool of his own vomit.

His vision blurred, and it felt like every vein in his body was on fire.

 

[Harry]

Hal swiftly turned to see his friend expelling the contents of his stomach onto the frozen dirt beneath them. After watching for a moment, he let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Talus sitting back. At least it appeared that he wouldn't die.

"We should leave soon," He said, scanning his surroundings, "I'll find Luther and Sierra. Be ready to leave when I return."

He weakly limped away. The only thing keeping him conscious was the sharp, painful coldness that he felt tearing at his skin. As he searched for the other two, he wondered if frostbite had set to his fingers or toes.

He did not need to call out to the others. They were nearby but separated by a mound of ice that had split off from the primary one that had consumed a majority of the elves.

He saw Luther standing over Sierra. He assumed the worst but remained calm. He didn't see any serious wounds and came to the conclusion she was unconscious. He approached them.

"Are you well?" He said as he knelt down. He could hear the ice crack around his knee as he knelt down next to Sierra, "Can you help me pick her up?"

He pointed over his shoulder, "Talus is there. We should leave."