[IC] Multiverse: The Sadist's Maze

[craptonofgames]

When in the warmer climates of Terra Nova watch your step or you might wind up The Sadist's Maze. A small hole in the ground could drop you into this hell, meticulously dug from the earth by some unknown sadist with a dream of creating hell on earth. Around twelve feet of dead drop from the middle of nowhere and you're suddenly in a slick and dark cavern, dimly lit by a series of lanterns embedded into the wall. A massive catacomb that defies regular maze logic, stick to the right wall and you'll wind up dropping down a pit of spikes. There's not many traps but no matter how brave and confident you are, you will feel unsettled by this creepy cave. Sometimes you might see the walls pulse and writhe, as though the caverns are alive. Sometimes you're certain you hear a voice calling your name in the distance. Other times you'll see a shadow that isn't yours creep around a corner. There's something wrong with this place, but you'll never find out. At least, you won't stay alive long enough for it to matter even if you did.

[ImportantNobody]

Evvie was minding her own business, exploring the pleasantly warm fields of Terra Nova, when all of a sudden she came across a mysterious hole that, although being of small diameter, appeared to go down deeper than any hole she had ever come across, for she could not see the bottom of it, although this could very well be due to the pure darkness of it's bottom. She curiously peaked downward while in a squatting position with her toes gripping lightly over the edge of the cliff, her dragon tails and wings perked up on her otherwise human looking body. Her night vision took a moment to adjust so was still not good enough to see the bottom, and although it would eventually be able to do so she got impatient far quicker then this change could possibly take effect. What's the worst that could happen? She was confident that she could simply fly back out if this turned out to be boring, and if it was exciting then why not spend some time exploring? After all, she had nothing good in particular to do at the moment. She let the rest of her feet slide further down past the edge until she was in freefall. She used her wings for a couple flaps onto to stop herself from reaching damaging speed should the fall take her down longer then expected. However, that would not be the case as she slammed into the earth after only a second or two. She was forced down onto her knees from the impact, said knees taking a lot of the force but was not enough to do any harm with her enhanced durability and healing. It just stung mildly for a couple of second.

She lifted back into a standing position, blinking as she did her best to survey her surroundings. There was the dim light of fire around the walls at some points along the cave, but otherwise it was hard to see much of anything until her vision better adjusted. For now she could feel around the cave with her bare feet, revealing her to be walking on a cold, slick, rocky feeling ground. This was clearly some sort of cave rather then a house built underground, which wouldn't make much sense anyways. She'd hate living underground, getting anxious if she couldn't spread her wings every so often. So while this wasn't her favorite environment by any means, her curiosity overtook this dislike so she continued forward into the cave rather then flying back out. After all, she didn't have to live here. She just had to do some exploring a bit. She wondered if there was any monsters around, for some reason feeling some unease at the thought. That was odd. She could handle any monster. This place was nothing. She confidently continued, unknowingly getting lost the further she went in.

[Alphakoka]

Dark, creepy and confusing, the maze would have served as a good lair for Niks to set up his workshop, the dimly lit cave wasn't too much trouble for orc sight, while he can't see detail, there wasn't many need for them. Would have, were it not for the difficulty of exiting the damned place. Entry was easy enough, as he had learned when he fell through one of such entrance that was covered by twigs and leaves. He did not know who had made the trap, but if he were to go with the shrill mocking laughter he heard soon after, it was goblin made. He made a mental note to pay them back once he get out of the cave as the fall had caused more damage to his suit. Of course most of the damage was simply minor lacerations caused when he hit the ground and wouldn't have be a problem if the orc suit was in good condition, but with prior condition of the suit, it made things worse although he had the time to at least sew them over the last few days. Yet it was a haunting few days as the maze's cursed magic burdened him, there was only so much a creepy voice and shadow flickering just outside his view could do to him. However, he couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something even more wrong dwelling in the place. It was not something that he would like to investigate right now, as such, his priority was finding an exit and a fresh suit for him to wear before his current one completely ruined, it would serve him no good to simply wander around parading his bones.

Niks turned his head towards the echo of the sounds of wing flapping and something landing on the ground, back towards the hole he had inspected earlier. Curious, Niks retraced his path and found a winged humanoid walking to his direction. All other questions was drowned over one.

Is that wing capable of flight? Niks thought. This might be a stroke of good luck, both a way out and a new suit. Still, he might want to get closer first, a breath of Hex would serve better than a dose of Miasma when his target was an unsuspecting fool.

[ImportantNobody]

Evvie scrunched her nose up as some fowl smell wafted through the air a little bit along the way ahead of her. Evvie has gotten really stinky before after putting off bathing for weeks while out exploring, but this was a stench far beyond what anything living could emit. Had some poor soul gotten lost down here and died? The source of this smell came into view a few moments later, looking quite like one would expect him to. She didn't like to judge people based on appearances, but this entire situation was just far too uneasy for her liking. Maybe she could see what he wants and then leave?

"Umm...hi. I Evvie," she said, eyeing him as he approached. Her body was visibly a little tense.

[Alphakoka]

Niks blinked when the humanoid spoke and introduced herself. Out of what he thought could happen, her introduction was not listed among it. However, now that she offered her name, it would be a bad manner for him not to reply in kind. He eyed the shorter, bright haired humanoid, noticing that she was tensing nervously. Now that he was closer, he can look at Evvie better in the dimly lit place. She looked dirty, but if her draconian feature was not an accessory, then it's likely that she's a healthy and strong person, on top of that, she wasn't wearing much. Niks smiled inwardly, for once, he might not be in too much of a disadvantage, he had met with one too many heavily armored knights where his miasma would serve no better other than a distraction.

"Greetings...Effie," he returned with the orc's gurgling voice. "I...am Niks. Were you... the one who fell....earlier?"

[Stekkmen]

A small bald man, standing at around five feet wandered around this beautiful world. He was daydreaming about bacon on toast when the ground disappeared out from under him. He let a short squeak escape from his mouth as he plummeted into the darkness. Landing headfirst, his neck immediately broke with a wince-worthy crack that echoed through out the maze.

He lay there for a moment, eyes open, the mask of death plastered on his face. Then his neck righted itself and he stood up, rubbing the back of his neck. He pondered how he managed to flip upside down and break his neck from a 12 feet drop, but that was probably just the curse.

"Thou shalt die a fuckton, while other would not. But worry not, from here on out, death has nothing on you,"

[ImportantNobody]

Fell? A noble dragon never falls down! This matter was even worse them him mispronouncing her name. How could this decaying man make such an ignorant mistake on the matter? The irritation at this comment was clearly evident on her face as her wings snapped forward with a single flap as if to tell him to look at her wings. Her wings rarely have failed her as long as she has had the room to fly.

"I come down to exper...esplode...esploor? Look at things," She told him. "I fly good so never fall," she reiterated, in case he didn't get the point from before. "What you doing here?"

Before he could answer a loud snapping sound was heard behind her. She jerked her head around, her wings and tail lifting at attention as she tried to determine what that sound was. Someone else fell down here? Not that she fell or anything.

[Stekkmen]

The little man got a chill down his spine. He pulls a small shortsword from his sheath and glances around. "Welp," He says, intrigued. "Guess I'm stuck here," He looks up through the hole and catches a glance at a cloud.

[Alphakoka]

The winged humanoid's reply seemed to amuse the undead. "Are you now? That's something good to hear," he said, stepping closer to Evvie as she asked what he was doing in the maze. "I am looking for a way out, and you...provided me one."

As soon as he said that, his hands shot out to grab Evvie by the shoulders, intending to hold her down as he took a sharp inhale.

[ImportantNobody]

"Hmm?" She questioned at his statement. Did he want her to carry him out through the hole? Could they both fit in at once? With her it could be possible, but-

The man suddenly attacked her for some reason before she had any time to even consider his offer. Huh?! Didn't he want her to help him out of the cave? She flinched backwards, which was more like a desperately ungraceful stumbling away rather then some expertly done retreat. In fact, her footwork was almost bad enough to make her fall down onto her butt by tripping over her own two feet. To keep her from doing so she flapped her wings, lifting her feet a couple of centimeters off the ground so that she was no longer relying on her footwork to get away from him, at least until she could recover from this surprise attack. She opened her mouth to breath fire on him as she tried to distance herself.

[Stekkmen]

The little man hear quite a commotion. He wasn't sure if it was just the echo, because it sounded incredibly close by.

He wandered around for a bit, and found two dark forms, one of them reeling out of grasp. His head peeked around the corner. Hopefully he was hidden in the darkness.

[Alphakoka]

Niks breathed out a pale yellow gas from his mouth just as Evvie slipped from his grasp, the humanoid was faster than his expectation and the gas floated in front of him.That was before a screen of fire washed over the gas, although the gas lingered, unaffected by the fire and singed his arms as he hurriedly took several steps backwards to avoid being burned more. As the fire breath covered his sight, Niks grunted. The undead waited for the fire to die down and prepared a Miasma gas that would induce coughing, as it were, the disease would only cause slight coughing, but it should be enough that Evvie wouldn't be able to hold her breath, fire or otherwise, for long.

[ImportantNobody]

Evvie regained her footing and stopped her fire breath, revealing to her a strange yellow fog coming out of her opponent's mouth as he had also traveled backwards a bit so that the fog was now in between the two of them standing safely out of arm's reach. Luckily the fog wasn't spreading too far, whatever it was exactly. She let out a grin, coming up with a clever plan as far as she was concerned. She extended her wings backwards and then snapped them forward again to unleash her wind gust technique, blowing winds of up to 50 miles an hour towards her opponent and the fog that he created. Time for a taste of his own medicine! She would keep up the wind for around 10 seconds, until the fog blew into his face, or until her opponent did something that caused her to change her strategy.

Her back was towards the newcomer and she had gotten closer to him as she regained her footing, so although he could probably see her rather well now she couldn't see him, being focused on the battle at hand.

[Stekkmen]

The little man slunk back behind the corner. They could probably kill him in an instant. It wouldn't matter much but he would rather avoid the pain of being set on fire or poisonous gas.

In fact, he just decided to run. Why even bother?

[Alphakoka]

When the fire stopped and dissipated, Niks took a short moment to locate Evvie beyond the hanging fog. After he was certain where the humanoid was standing, he released the cough miasma, passing underneath the fog and towards Evvie's torso. However, before the spell hit, he saw that the girl grinned before her wings snapped back and then a gust of harsh wind was blown to his face. While the wind did nothing but blowing dirt to his face and forced Niks to stumble backwards while using one hand to cover his eyes, it had caused his spell to steer off course as it curved away from Evvie's torso and headed to her left side. Thinking that the wind was her attempt to run away while hindering his sight and chase attempt, Niks grunted as he started to take several steps towards Evvie.

[ImportantNobody]

Evvie was surprised when her wing attack was useless against her original target, but actually affected two additional attacks that came in just as she began flapping. The first was a gas and the second was the man charging forward. Uhh...yes, she meant to blow away those two things, of course, but the wind wasn't quite strong enough to repel them completely. She didn't have much time to think of a plan, but she quickly considered that she'd have a much easier time punching the man then the fog. That being said she maneuvered away from the fog and into the charging man. She had her right hand reeled backwards and then she punched at his face when he drew near. She let out a battle cry as she did so.

[Alphakoka]

When the wind died down, Niks immediately increased his speed and tried to to tackle the girl down to the ground, not wanting his chance for exit to fell through his grasp. Of course, this action led into a haymaker connecting to his face. The punch tore through his suit's degraded lips and cheeks, revealing the mouth, along with several of the orc's sharp teeth, the cavity soon replaced with a more human looking teeth. Even so, the punch didn't manage to stop his momentum completely and, unless the humanoid somehow manage to evade, she would have a mass of flesh weighting on top of her.

[ImportantNobody]

Evvie felt the satisfying crunch of her opponent's teeth crashing against her knuckles, but unlike a normal person who would have been in no position to keep on going by any stretch of the imagination, this guy was oddly both determined and able to do so. Could he not feel pain? Could he withstand a full powered punch from her awesome half-dragon muscles? Looks like this random guy she had run into was more then meets the eye, which was honestly not much as far as she had believed. He had looked like he'd turn to dust if someone sneezed on him too hard. She was caught off guard and had no time to dodge as he collided into her. She placed both palms onto his upper chest to try and shove him away with all of her might before he could get a good grip on her. She also began to open her mouth to let loose a simultaneous fire breath attack directly into his face, as it seemed to be effective earlier so would discourage him to hang on for long even if she couldn't shove him off.

"See if you handle this!" She thought to herself, confident then this would take him out before he could do anything to harm her.

[Alphakoka]

Niks kept pushing even when fire engulfed the upper half of his face. The damage to the suit would be irreparable now, but in exchange of a new one, it was something he was willing to take. There was an audible pop as he lost the suit eyes before two eerie fire filled the burned socket. He needed to do something about the fire breath while he was near, if she managed to get away now, he might as well lose his suit already. Once again, he created a miasma to induce coughing in his hand and using the same hand, slapped the spell just underneath her jaw to close her mouth.

[ImportantNobody]

"Is he unstoppable?!" is what Evvie was wondering as this monster continued his attack. She was still trying to shove him away with her arms as his fist found her lower jaw. As her head jerked upwards her teeth clattered together, causing the jet of fire to sputter out against them. She opened her mouth again as soon as she was able to let out both a cry of surprise and the smoke that had been trapped inside. It bellowed out as she stumbled backwards, barely able to maintain her balance after that attack.

"Not right?!" She thought. "No way that right!"

Her wings began to flap so that she could retreat backwards and regroup, but for some odd reason she began to start a coughing fit, which even messed up her wing control as her torso spasm'd in between coughs. Why'd something like this have to start now?! Was it something he did by hitting his jaw and...forcing the cough out? No, that doesn't make much sense. Maybe she just got unlucky...actually, that had to be it. She tried to blow fire but only managed puffs of smoke into his face as the air was forcefully ejected from her lungs.

If she managed to have pushed him away then as her feet touched down again she would spring forward to try and punch him in the face again with her right fist. This thing was going down!