damned_institute | Night 59: Weapons Range

Entry tags:

Night 59: Weapons Range

> ==>

Stepping through the door, Gamzee found himself in a larger room than the one they'd just left. It was also a great bit brighter, and he squinted against this brightness with a frown. His eyes were accustomed to the darkness, and the sudden light made it difficult for him to see for a few moments.

When he'd finally blinked the spots away, he walked further in to allow the other two room to pass around him. The pillowcase was set down, and he twirled a club idly in each hand, just taking everything in. It wasn't a room full or treasure, but it did look like a place he could mess around with the weapons he'd picked up. That could be fun too.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ilia growled in triumph when she managed to take hold. She was in more danger here, but at this point she didn't much care. Her adrenaline was shooting off the scales now and she wasn't backing down.

The ogre's fist managd to knock her shoulder, but she only gripped harder, her gloved fingers digging into the ogre's dark skin. Unless it actually yanked her off or broke her arm she wasn't going to let go. Using her other fist, she started pounding the oger at the base of the back of its head. If she didn't start scoring some points, she was going to have to give herself a zero for this performance. And Ilia Silvestri did not make zeroes.

Pain could only serve as an alertness booster for so long before it just started functioning as pain again. Blood coursed down the thing's head, and the loss of the precious liquid was starting to cause some faintness. The ogre kept its punches coming, encouraged by the hits it had score so far, but it was becoming noticeably more loose in its movements despite its efforts, as compared to Gamzee's more focused ones.

Yet more blood flowed freely from the eyes of Rose's yowling ogre, which now flailed even more wildly and fiercly, like a malfunctioning death machine. The needle wands went into its eyes and out and back in again, but it didn't make a difference after the first time. Pain was still pain, and blindness was still blindness. The ogre lashed out with its hands where it could feel Rose above it, desperate to land any kind of retaliation — unaware of the magic spell about to befall it.

Ilia finally experienced some success as her fist hit true, pounding into the base of the ogre's skull and leaving a fist-sized dent in the rubbery skin over the cracked skull. The ogre cried out in its booming, vile scream, barely able to turn its head for the pain it was in. Still it grabbed at its tiny assailant, trying to swat her off like a giant wasp now.

Suddenly Gamzee's eyes narrowed, the dopey look gone. There were few enough drugs in his system at this point in the day, coupled with his current predicament, that this ogre was privy to a side of the clown rarely seen up until now.

He rolled further out of the way, easily avoiding the punches, until he was back on his feet again. Fast steps took him around the beast and he raised both clubs to slam them hard into the back of the beast's knees. If he could be brought to the ground, the process of reuniting his clubs with its head would be all that much simpler. The troll meant business now, and this ogre was going down.

It was a shame he'd forget most of this after the fact.

Rose's spell zapped true, just as one of the ogre's wild blows finally landed. Its tree-sized black armtrunk imparted sufficient momentum to fling her across the room, where she thunked into the wall and slid down it.

That was going to leave a bruise. One, if one could count her entire back as a single surface. Still, she wasn't about to let it slow her down. As soon as she landed, she scrambled to her feet and ran after the ogre that held Ilia's attention, tugging her pillow out as she ran. Not to hold under Ilia; that would take the passive-aggressive response to a level not appropriate to the middle of a fight.

Wait. Was there a level that was ever inappropriate? Well, maybe she would hang onto the pillow. But what she was after right now was the pillowcase, which she dug her knives into and started cutting it into a long ribbon, which she started weaving between the ogre's feet in a figure eight. If it came down, then she might use the pillow.

The resounding howls and thuds from the other ogres sounded miles away to Ilia. Still caught up by her own giant opponent, Ilia was fighting like a mad woman to stay in her vantage point. The ogre's scrambling blows were now more frequent but lacked aim. As a result, Ilia was hit with more glancing blows. Quantity but less quality. Still enough to rip a few pained grunts from her and there was definitely a few more dark spots taking up residence on her back and shoulders.

"I won't lose!" Ilia hissed. She threw another punch where her first had landed, focusing all her power again into her fist.

Her other arm was weakening. She knew she couldn't hold on much longer but Ilia didn't want to let go until she completed the job. Whether her wish came true of not was still up in the air. Oblivious to all other things, she didn't even notice Rose's involvement with the ogre. Her thoughts were strictly on her goals.

Sadly, the ogre didn't have the presence of mind or familiarity with Landel's Friendly Neighbourhood Troll to appreciate what it was seeing. What it did have was continued ogre rage despite its injuries and increasing faintness, however. Rage, at least, had a never-ending supply. It continued to pound its fists at Gamzee, faster and more furious as its opponent continued to dodge.

There was nothing it could do to improve its situation with its vision becoming blurred, though. It couldn't stop Gamzee as he dashed around behind, and it couldn't turn fast enough to avoid his next blows. One leg cleared out of the way of a club, but the leg the ogre pivoted on took a direct hit, sending it down onto one knee with a great boom against the stone floor.

With the brain of Rose's ogre fried, the thing finally stopped moving, leaving Rose free to focus on Ilia's ogre. As she started cutting up her pillowcase, the ogre in question was focused on getting Ilia off its back still. It kept up its attacks, yowling again when punched and staggering as the damage to that sensitive area of its head started to pile up. While the thing might have been big and heavy enough to shred through the pillowcase ribbon had it not been suffering brain damage, as it was, the thing was suffering brain damage. It didn't think to kick out at the ribbon as it encircled its ankles, and combined with the staggering Ilia's attacks were causing, the ogre finally toppled, crashing to its stomach on the ground.

Ogre rage was one thing. Gamzee? He was the motherfuckin' Bard of Rage... for whatever that meant. He couldn't tell you himself. Whatever the real meaning, right now it meant he was one dangerous little troll. (Or former troll, given the circumstances.)

If he hadn't been shackled by the current limitations on his abilities, he would have been a blur or less around the ogre's arms. The monster wouldn't have stood a chance. As it was, he had to be a little more careful about how he hopped about, avoiding the swinging arms. Those trunks of flesh could be deadly of they hit him the wrong way. He was at least aware of that.

At least it was somewhat crippled now. Once he could find an opening between flails, he'd be leaping toward the beast's head, intent on cracking both clubs down on top of it.

Rose hopped up beside Ilia on the back of the fallen tyrant, and extended a hand. "Ilia. Are you injured?"

Gamzee was still pummeling his ogre, but he seemed to have it well in hand. It more than made up for his inability to contribute earlier -- a good team took all types, and his was obvious.

"I wonder if this is it. And if not, what's next?"

The fall was inevitable. Ilia let go right at the last moment, pulling her arm back just before the beast crashed to the ground. She lay across it's broad back, panting. Then she heard the little voice of Rose behind her.

Turning a little on her side, she saw the extended hand and the strung-out pillowcase wrapped around her opponents legs. She really owed the girl a lot. Smiling, Ilia reached out with her less-pained hand and took Rose's offered one, standing up upon their defeated ogre. "Thanks, Rose. Really."

Gamzee was still going at it, but whoa, could that kid move! "He's really... that's something, isn't it?" Still panting, Ilia wiped some sweat and her bangs out of her face. "I sure hope that was it."

If another monster appeared, Ilia was going to have to really step-up her game. But could she manage that with the power block back in place? Ilia couldn't say with confidence that she could anymore. Not after this fight.

The three all seemed to find their victories around this point. Gamzee's clubs hit true, bringing darkness to the beast's brain and permanent stillness to its limbs. Likewise, the head trauma of Ilia's ogre became too much for it very quickly, and its own weak flailing ceased as well.

When no new monsters appeared to take the ogres' places, the sound of stone shifting against stone emanated from across the room once more. A marble pedestal, elegantly carved, rose from the ground against the wall, and atop it sat an ornate miniature sword, ripe for the taking.

Gamzee landed and glanced around for more enemies. When none were forthcoming, his whole stance gradually shifted back into his more typical lazy one. His expression mellowed out, and he stood in a daze for a few moments as the adrenaline wore off.

Only after a bit of this did he blink and the fallen ogres around them. Well shit, that had been easy, hadn't it? Searching out the other two, he gave both a double thumbs up and a goofy grin. Nothing remained of the dangerous ogre-slayer from before. It was back to being regular old Gamzee.

Oh hey, had they won something?

"He is." Left unsaid in her smirk was that he had to have been good for something. Combat, it seemed, was his forte. Which might explain why he hadn't ever bothered trolling her. She watched him pummel the final opponent into ogremush, which was, when she thought about it, incredibly disgusting. Eventually he seemed to emerge from his trance, just as a pedestal did the same from the ground.

They'd won? Really? That was all there was? Rose hopped down from the now-quiescent ogre and approached the dais. A small sword. Very clever. She picked it up and examined their trophy. Certainly not big enough to be very useful, even for one used to small, pointy arsenals.

She did nothing so crude as to hold it aloft or to dance in triumph, merely turned around with it in her hands and nodded to Gamzee and Ilia. "It looks like our work here is done."

When Gamzee's ogre hit the ground, Ilia let out a cheer. "Way to go, Gamzee!" Talk about power! Ilia could really get behind strength like that. He was still a kid, but with the right training he could really go far in combat. 'Impressed' would have been an understatement.

When the sword appeared, Ilia sighed in relief. That meant this trial was over. So now what?

"Where to now, kids?" Ilia asked, smiling tiredly as she stepped down from the ogre carcass.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Night 59: Weapons Range

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject