At first, Hikage's words were met with only silence, her mind venom slowly growing forward until it reached a certain point. Suddenly, a barrage of bone shards, sharp and strong as steel daggers, would fly through the darkness at high speeds towards her position. And they weren't just coming from her front, but from every direction and in great quantities. This would continue until she was either dead or had done what Nidhogg wanted her to do, recall her mind venom so she could mould into a protective shield. The hail of bone would continue to pelt the area where Hikage was located, only stopping for a single split second. In that split second, large ivory spears would be launched at her from several directions from above, each traveling at the speed of a bullet. These spears were formed with piercing in mind, and at the speed they were traveling, it would take a pretty thick and solid wall to stop them.
Hikage listened only to hear silence from his end, meanwhile her Mind Venom reached its max range. Suddenly she would jump into the air dodging these bone shard and would land and duck from the next one that came from the side. The amount kept increasing with her dodging the shards until it got too the point too many were coming. he probably wanted this to happen and as such she shrunk her Mind Venom to form a shield around her which served it purpose of blocking the shards. So many were coming that it would confuse those that were wondering how he was shooting them at such high speeds. In a split second though they stopped and would result in a few ivory spears flying straight at her much faster than the shards. She clutched her giant knife and would swing it just as it shattered her Mind Venom And would push the first one aside then the next one. The third one however cut her right thigh, which made her smirk as she continued dodging Bone shards.
"Okay then, My turn." She said and would launch herself into the air as high as she could go looking around. He really wasn't much fun, hiding and such. She should brighten the area a bit.
"Sticky Venom." She muttered and formed her venom around her entire body in a circle. On the inside she would toss her knives in multiple direction, with the knives taking pieces of the venom which was now sticky and would carry it until it connected with a surface. Yet as it traveled it also brought its light with it.
"Hmph, she's an agile one, I'll give her that." Nidhogg observed from above as she avoided his barrage and spears, before leaping into the air and throwing her knives everywhere, hoping to spread her light and draw him out of hiding. Unfortunately, her attempt to brighten her surroundings wouldn't be met with as much success as she might've hoped, as most of them would probably hit the bones spires that had still been growing throughout interior. Upon impact with the osseous matter, the light of the mind venom would be swallowed as the knives were quickly absorbed into the spires. Of course, there were some areas that would be lit, as they hd struck either the trees or the ground, but they were few and far between. One had been about to hit him before he smacked it aside with a bone sword he'd constructed incase Hikage ever noticed his position, making a very noticeable clang noise instead of the the more subdued thunks of the other impacts.
While this was happening, however, Hikage would probably be a bit too preoccupied to notice, as the spires around her would suddenly burst into a barrage of spikes, thrusting forward to impale her while she was in the air. After that, the would also join in on the attempt on her life, as certain sections rapidly caved in on her position, limiting her available maneuver space and quite possibly crushing a limb or two if she wasn't careful about where everything was.
She tilted her head at certain areas being lit up but certain other areas for a split second before being absorbed. So spires absorbed huh? No touching those with her bare flesh then. She gazed around at the areas that were lit up and saw nothing that caught he attention, except a clang sound and turned her head upwards. She grew a sly grin as she prepared to make her Mind Venom act like wings for a bit to reach the man, that was until the spires exploded sending quite a lot of spikes at her. Gritting her teeth she had her Mind Venom form Tendrils and start swatting away the spikes while a few slipped past and sliced her legs and arms a bit.
Yet once that seemed to be finished with the ceiling caved in a bit sending the debris falling downwards toward her. This actually helped her out a bit. She used her Mind venom and shot two tendrils out to grab onto one, and would use it to fling herself flying towards the ceiling. She had to use her Mind Venom to knock away any incoming debris yet once she got out of the danger zone, she formed the wings out of the venom and used them to propel her towards the top where the man of the hour awaited.
"Tag." She said grinning as she launched a kick right towards his sternum.
Nidhogg blocked the kick with the flat of his blade, which rapidly grew tendrils to wrap around her foot, and as he gave her a cold grin of his own, two crimson tendrils burst out of his back and slammed down on her with a great deal of force. If this hit, it'd launched her down from the pod into a rather thick bridge of bone, formed from a spire going almost horizontally across the field. As he was attacking, Nidhogg would shift into his Assault form, his skin seeming to age and decay as this more monstrous figure took his place. Whether she fell or not, the bone sword would stay firmly wrapped around her foot, and would soon deform into a solid ball of bone if she couldn't find a way to stop or remove it.
The pod would soon launch itself downward, right onto Hikage's position if she fell, and Nidhogg would step out with a calm, unworried gate, the bone of the sire rising into his hand to give him another sword to use.
"Well then, you've done okay up till now, and while it'd probably be in my best interest to just end this, I'd rather not have this game end quite yet. Shall we play some more, madam? My name is Nidhogg, in case you want to know the name of the mage about to kill you. I'd ask for your name, but honestly, I could careless about knowing the name of an inept dairy cow such as yourself."
When he blocked the attack she prepared to kick with her other leg only to be surprised at the tendrils wrapping around her foot from the sword. It didn't seemingly effect her so she was wary of it but not focused on it. He then grabbed her big knife and a smaller one and blocked the crimson tendrils. The force still sent her downwards however, towards a bridge of bone at that. Yet at this point bone like objects weren't very trust able so.... She would start up her Venom to form a hammer like object and smash through the bridge. Yet as she used her venom to soften the landing, she noticed the sword switched to a ball of bone which made her tap her foot on the ground, before the man came down to her position.
He was certainly different, and looked far more dangerous. His very presence itself made her shiver a bit, yet grin at the same time. When he introduced himself she nodded before staring blankly at the name he gave her. She looked down at her body and back up.
"Meh fair enough with that one. Yet this Dairy Cow is still going to beat you to death. Yet first." She said before lifting her right foot up with the ball and slamming it down on the ground shattering the ball and shaking her leg.
"Sorry, that was just a tiny hindrance. Good thing I got some great leg strength huh? Shit that name is making more sense by the second..."Thats what she would say, yet as she was saying it she was already crouched down in front of him, sending her foot towards his chin with her Venom deciding to wrap around his legs from below.
Nidhogg blinked as Hikage suddenly closed the distance, her kick solidly connecting with his chin to send his head reeling back. However, Nidhogg was far rom rattled, as his free hand was quick to reach over in an attempt to grab the limb, sinking his claws into her flesh as well as channeling his necrotic energy into it. The flesh would begin to slowly rot away as it came into contact with the energy, and if he was able to grab her as originally intended, it would sink deep into her muscles, severely hampering the limb. His next move would be whip his head back around and take a large bite out of Hikage's leg, to both further hamper her movements and regain some of the magical energy he used up making and manipulating this dome. He paid no mind to the tendrils around his legs at the moment, as he had incased his feet in bone from the ground, rooting himself in place incase she tried to pull his feet out from under him.
When his head reeled back he wasted no time in grabbing her leg and digging his claws into her flesh. she yelped a bit as she slammed her other leg into the hand ripping it out which hurt like a bitch and pushed away just before he could bite into her leg. She twitched a bit when putting pressure on her leg but it wasn't horribly bad to walk on or use. She had her Venom come out of the holes in her leg to push out any bad energy he might have put in, although it was subtle she didn't notice a tiny skin color change. "Okay no touchy bone spires and you trying to be intimate is dangerous as well." She would tap her chin wondering what she could do but shrugged and picked up one of her knives that had the sticky venom on it and threw it right at Nidhogg's head. While the Venom around his leg grew in a larger area and would expand outwards a bit. If he was paying attention to it well enough, he would see several dark tendrils inside the venom aiming to pierce right through his legs.
"Hmmm, you doing well for a Cow such as yourself, but I do hope you've got something more interesting in your arsenal than this." Nidhogg said , deflecting the knife with rapid swing of his sword as he took a step forward. The bone around his feet and legs began expand from underneath the mind venom, pushing it off the necromancer to give him room to breathe. However, the tendrils were able to pierce through expanding Ivory bracers and bit into his legs, though they weren't able to get very deep due to the steel-like hardness of the bone. Not only that, but thanks to his earlier meal, his body was already beginning to heal the wounds, making it so that the damage done would be gone with in the next minute or so.
The pain went unnoticed by Nidhogg as the ivory continued to spread until he had enough room to simply jump out of the bone, and thus, escaping the grasp of the green energy. While in the air,he transformed his sword into a spear and launched Hikage, only for it to miss her completely. However, as it pierced a nearby bone spire, it'd suddenly be shot at her again, but this time going twice as fastens accompanied by a hail of smaller shards. Nidhogg would be watching from up high once again, standing on top of another Spire bridge as he looked down at Hikage, wondering what her next move would be to avoid getting impaled and shredded.
"Thanks, I'd say you are doing alright. And maybe I do, maybe I don't." Hikage replied with a shrug as he deflected her one shot but not the one piercing his leg. Yet he seemed too fine for comfort. So when he started advancing she brought up her giant knife for safety measures. Suddenly he jumped into the air though, which made her blink as he transformed into a sword. yet she didn't even move as it launched at her. It just missed her which meant he was planning something. So turning around she saw it hit a spire and launched back at her much faster though.
"I'm an assassin for a reason you know." She said as she managed to dodge not only the sword but the shards as well, even as her leg bled out.
"I think it's my turn to ask you the same question. Is this all you are capable of? Cause I've seen this trick about three times now."She would expand her Venom out o cover more ground and too look around to finally spot him on a spire.
"You aren't used to someone fighting back are you?" She asked before she held up her left hand which generated this saw blade out of venom. She would then chuck it right at Nidhogg in hopes of getting him back on the ground.
"More like I'd rather not end things too early. I've invested quite a bit of time into this already and I'd hate to end it in a way that didn't feel satisfactory." Nidhogg said calmly, the saw blade heading his way getting intercepted by the bone of the spire he was standing on sprouting out a tendril to bat it away. "Besides, you've yet to show me anything to make me take you seriously yet. I believe that this match was mine the moment you found yourself trapped in this dome. Here. . . I am God."
As he spoke, Nidhogg would thrust out with his hand, setting his plan into motion. From every direction came a barrage of skeletal hands, spreading out from all of the spires of bones in the area, in which Hikage found herself right in the middle of. They even came from the ground beneath, assign that he'd been spreading his spires under ground as well as through the sky, to grab at her legs and body in order to pull her into the abyss. Not only where the hands strong and hard as steel, but they also would drain away her magic with just a touch at a steady rate, which would grow the more hands where grasping her. Even her mind venom would be affected by this, the magic that manifested it being drained by the sea of reaching hands, as if the entire world had become a den for the souls of the damned.
Even if she escaped the initial onslaught, every bone spire would launch out at her with equal ferocity, the spell that Nidhogg had cast making them all hunger for the energy of the living. Meanwhile, Nidhogg would simply back away from the area, keeping his eye on Hikage as he landed in the ground and made his way to one of the sides of the dome. He had probably missed a lot of the games already and wanted to make it in time for the final fight. Since the beginning of the battle, he'd been slowly but surely decreasing the size of the dome, so that his escape would be easier to accomplish and to limit the maneuverability if Hikage when it came down to it. At this point, the done had gone down by about 3-5 meters, and this would definitely limit her maneuver possibilities by getting rid of some trees and making it harder to avoid the hands that were rising to drag her into the ground. "I believe this is checkmate, yes?"
She listened to him as he talked while the spire deflected her little attack. So this dome made him god huh? Really it seemed more so like he loved playing hide and seek. Yet she didn't seem that shocked by all the skeletal hands coming at her from every direction. she had to jump away from the ones from below and had to sidestep a few from the side. One grazed her and she could sense it sapped a bit of her energy away. Meanwhile while he was making his get away she had to continue dodging the attacks grinning quite widely.
"Don't know if you hear me, yet let me tell ya a little tip about my magic. It can't poison me, but it can affect me if I let it." She stated before her Mine venom came out of her in a ball and transformed into need like like tendrils.
What would happen is they would pierce into her skin and into her veins. And inject themselves into her bloodstream, this was shown by her veins turning a neon green color. This would course its way over her entire body until green lines were all over her body. Thats when her grin was just growing from ear to ear. She would take her knives in hand and start running as her eyes turned green.
"I can jump start my body into over performing itself way above its capabilities!" She said as she was dashing through the hands that tried to smash into her, her speed was much faster than it was before most likely due to the venom coursing through her veins.
Of course some nicked her and sapped some energy away but not at a quick enough rate to dwindle her down to nothing.
"So if this dome is around, you are god? Then you can rest in peace in your home god." Hikage said as she would look around the area this time seemingly capable of seeing what laid around as she dodged a few spires and made her way to the man of the hour.
"Wanna see a neat trick huh? Well don't blink then. You might miss something." She said before lifting her legs from the ground and pushing off the air in which she would vanish from any normal persons eyes. Yet if he did what she said then he would see that she just released a huge burst of speed to appear in front of him. Yet she had her mind venom form a wall around him where the only escape was from above.
"Remember those sticky venom's I threw? Well I hope you do." She stated as from above multiple green projectiles were now flying at Nidhogg yet they weren't just green coated knives. They now had the appearance of torpedoes. Where they came from only she would know, yet if ones eyesight was outstanding, one would see the small green line coming from her fingers.
Nidhogg merely smiled as he found himself trapped, an excited gleam emanating from his eyes as his mouth stretched into a fanged grin. As the green torpedoes came hurtling his way, bone burst from the ground to surrounding him, expanding rapidly as it took the brunt of the attack and possibly would crush Hikage against her own enclosure if she didn't act fast enough. However, instead of continuing to spread outward, this bone began to take shape around him, forming a skeletal frame that was soon padded out by a flood of foul smelling flesh and tissue. By the time the process was over, 4 gaping maws would be positioned hungrily above the woman as the
creature seemed to rise out of the ground.
From one of the heads, flesh and bone split to show Nidhogg eating his way out of his creation, his breathing a bit ragged from the exertion of forming this creature and keeping up the onslaught of the skeletal hands, which would still be reaching out to grab at her whenever she cam close. The creatures was large, so much so that it's head's almost touched the ceiling and it's body took up about half the dome, all the spires behind it seeming to have melded into the creature to help form it's skeletal structure. No words were spoken, simply a gesture of a raised hand, and the heads would lash out at her with surprising speed, not enough to overtake her, but fast enough to make them a threat if she didn't pat attention. While the rest of it's body couldn't move, it's head would be able to easily maneuver inside the dome. Nidhogg, having recovered a portion of his magic through his grisly deed, switched to his speed form, blasting forward with claws outstretched as he shed the skin of his Assault form, joining in the assault at speeds equal to that of Hikage. His claws were swirling with necrotic energy, so even the tiniest nick would cause her skin to blacken as the cells died from his deadly touch. He'd never stay in an engagement for long before flying away, and would have two blood tendrils covered in segmented bone armor to defend against any of her mind venom attacks.
All the while, he'd have a monstrously wide grin on his face that spoke of only insanity, dark excitement, and all the ferocity of a rabid animal as he sought to rip the woman to piece. Between his furious assault, the hands continually trying to grab at her, and the four heads of the ghoulish hydra(one of them lagging slightly due to it taking some damage on Nidhogg's exit), Hikage would have quite a lot to dodge.
She turned her gaze behind her and jumped out of the bones way as it tried to crush her against her Venom. Granted all it would be doing would be pushing her through the venom. Yet she rather no fuse with the male, and as she dodged the hand onslaught that persisted she had to push back even further when a gigantic hydra formed.
"Neat. However." She spoke and jumped out of the way from one of its heads lunging itself at her.
"Too slo-" She was cut off when he appeared in front of her in a different form trying to scratch her. Its caught her off guard enough that he managed to scratch her left arm, which resulted in the area around it turning black. This many was just a huge walking nope wasn't he?
She put more effort into blacking his attack now, and having to push off the hands to avoid the hydras attack. It got too the point she was on guard twenty four seven while having her energy sucked out. As she continued blocking and dodging she wondered what to do about this situation.
"Well time for a more dangerous dose then." She stated with her mind venom forming a tendril and injecting itself into her vein again, the neon green color turned into a dark green one which caused her to coughed up blood yet grin at him.
"Well I promised you a really neat trick now so I hope it thoroughly entertains you." She said now dashing around him before jumping out of view into the air. Yet within that few seconds she came raining down along with what looked like a shower of venom meteorites. They of course didn't have the destructive powers of one, but the fact they held the sizes of some was outstanding in its own way. That and the fact they were poison was another thing. They all looked scattered around, yet although she had her giant knife aimed at the man, she also had strings around her fingers all connecting to her attacks. So as she neared him she pulled on them and all the meteorites that weren't destroyed by the hands did a u-turn in multiple directions toward the man.
Nidhogg had to admit, he was very impressed with Hikage right now. She was putting up quite the fight, and it really got his blood pumping. He'd been toying with the notion for a while in the back of his mind, but now he was certain of it. When he managed to kill her, as he had no doubt that this would end in her perishing, he would bring her back as a Reborn. Having someone like her under his control would be a definite boon, though that sadly meant he wouldn't be feasting on her flesh today, as he need her body to be intact for the spell to work. Turning his attention back to his prey, he cursed as he saw her launch at him, knowing that attempting to dodge wouldn't worker, and not wanting to risk getting infected by the venom, he switched into his Defense form, landing on a Horizontal spire and reaching with his tendrils to slash at her. However, he was suddenly blind sided from behind as a series of projectiles hit him from behind, and while his Defense form allowed him to avoid the worst of it, it still hurt him, as well as causing his movements to feel a bit slower than usual.
Ah, so that's how it works. Good thing I switched to defense, or else I'd probably have a much harder time moving then a lit lag. Still, I think the time for games is nearing it's end.Switching back to his Speed Form, the shed skin hopefully taking with any lingering traces of the venom from his skin, and he launched himself back into the fray, attacking with not only his claws, but his tendrils, which he had multiplied by two. This meant that along with everything else still going at her, she had to deal with 6 sharp limbs trying to take her out in a furious high speed d assault. These tendrils were thinner, and thus less defensive than before, and with lighter armor, but this also meant that they'd be able to launch attacks faster, which helped when all for of the tendrils were as charged with Necrotic energy as his claws. He said no words, but his intense stare, maddened grin, and complete insane laughter was a clear indication that he was really enjoying himself in this battle.
he switched forms yet again which was probably to endure the barrage that she started to slam into him. While she had to keep a bit of a distance from his tendrils, otherwise shed be in a shitty situation. Really anything this guy did was kinda shitty for someone who dealt in close range. So when he switched back to speed form, she smiled as she wiped the blood that was pouring from her mouth from the Poison's damage. He was really trying to eat her wasn't he? Although his magic seemed a bit unfair, so she decided to form a massive ball of condensed Poison around her to act as a shield as he laid into it to try and maul her.
"You are kind of crazy you know that? You are probably a huge reason why necromancers are really taboo these days. Hell maybe you are the reason. Yet there is one thing I want to know. That child that was with you and your guild.... were you planning on killing her, cause if so then you are not going to like what I do next. So choose your words carefully Mr. Cannibal." Hikage spoke staying in the middle of her ball that protected her for the time being.
While the sphere protected her from his onslaught, it held in one place long enough for the hands to slam into the sides, holding it up in the air. They covered nearly the whole thing except for an area in front of Hikage, draining the energy of the field slowly but surely, The hydra kept back, poised and ready to strike as soon as an opening revealed itself. Nidhogg made a small bridge from a near by spire to land on, a clawed hand scratching lightly at his chin as he listened to the assassin talk. When she finished, he couldn't help but chuckle at her concern for the girl.
"Oh, I'm shaking in my boots, truly nothing is more frightening than seeing a Cow get up in arms over a young calf." Nidhogg, placed his hands behind his back as he pondered the thought. He had wanted to devour the girl earlier, but maybe that had just been his hunger talking. Now, after conversing with her and having a filling meal, he didn't quite feel like it so much any more. He felt it'd be more interesting to leave her alive, for now anyway. "To answer your question, not anymore. I won't lie and say that it wasn;t my original intention, but the little creature has peaked my interest, so she's safe. And also, that child is most likely older than the both of us combined. She's not human, not anymore anyway, but something tells me that won't make much difference to you. And regarding your earlier comment regarding my sanity, there is a certain saying about a pot and a kettle that comes to mind."
Nidhogg cracked his neck, shifting back into his Speed form as he gave Hikage a final grin before he disappeared from sight, speeding high above the sphere, before blasting down at high speed. As he approached the sphere, he shifted his arm into it's Assault Form, bringing it back before slamming it into the sphere, which would've been weakened by the constant drain from the hands surrounding it, aiming to smash Hikage into ground, the force of the attack being great enough to make a small, but deep crater at the point of impact. The skeletal hands would be blocking her escape, as the conversation had allowed him to form a small, but formidable wall of grasping appendages around her, except for the one opening that had been left for the conversation, but that was being guarded by the Hydra, each of the heads ready to launch forward to take a bite out of her, with a few hands in that direction ready to strike in that direction as well. While her chances of escaping from this were probably rather good, it was very unlikely she'd be able to escape it entirely unscathed, whether it be from her own use of magic or Nidhogg's attacks didn't matter.
As she waited in the sphere she had a tendril needle pointed at her arm just in case his answer didn't please her. Yet although the hands were weakening the sphere she listened to him state he was going to but not anymore. That was good enough for her, as long as the child was safe she had no reason to take it to that level. She still knew that certain danger rested outside for the sphere to break apart, yet she had enough poison in her system to feel safe enough.
"Looks like a child, is a child too me." She said regarding his comment to the girl being older than both of them.
Yet his silence made her certain he was attacking and the sphere flying towards the ground and shattering was an indication of that. The hands all launched at her and the only opening was to head towards the Hydra. Yet frankly, the Hydra didn't scare her. So she dashed right on out to her only escape which brought the Hydra to attack. Yet she didn't seem to move and instead formed another Sphere and used the Hydras momentum to send her flying across the dome. When she crashed, she jumped up to her feet and cracked her neck.
"Well its been fun Cannibal, yet I really don't have any beef with you anymore. One million jewels ain't that big of a loss for me. So tips for next time. Leaving survivors is very bad. Yet maybe we can play again sometime."With saying that Hikage would form multiple tendrils of Poison and with the poison in her body boosting her bodies capabilities, would burst towards the wall, and shatter a small enough hole for her to escape the dome. She shielded her eyes a bit at the sunlight yet took off running, right back to town.
Nidhogg clicked his teeth, cracking his knuckles as he rose from the ground. As Hikage escaped, he considered giving chase, but decided that he'd had his fun and the woman had more than earned her freedom. It had been a fun distraction, and while he was a little put off that he missed the chance to finish viewing the fights, he was far from regretful. As he slid back into his normal form, he pointed at the hydra. The creature immediately began to bloat up before bursting into a explosion of blood and bone, coating the entirety of the inside with the bright red of blood and leaving random bits of gore here and there.
"That's sure to give someone a fright one day . . . if the giant dome made of bone doesn't do it first." Nidhogg contemplated to himself as he opened up a hole for himself, walking out in a casual matter, removing the blood from his clothes with his magic and drinking it like a fine wine. Now he was left to figure out what else could be done, as he had nothing to do now. He'd probably missed the games for the most part, and he didn't feel like making the effort of walking all the way back to the arena anyway. With a sigh, he began making the trek back to the city, grumbling to himself as he did so.
"Damn Cow, couldn't she have entertained me for just a bit longer. The fight was just getting interesting too . . ."
