Caelestis

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Cuttersbury: Trail towards Drych Lake

"Spes chaote, spes propter chaotem - res creata magna, mihi faenerare fortem; potestatem inclamo--"

WHUMP! Big Bro Varren landed on the ground, shaking the trees. Quentin, in the middle of his incantation, almost felt a rattle through his teeth from the impact. He clicked his tongue in frustration. You could not rush genius, or preparing enough firepower to knock something that big on its butt. Though he knew that it was a waste of time to look down, Quentin did anyway. Tobi shot the Varren in the mouth. Quentin felt his mouth go dry as the Varren counterattacked, swatting Tobi into Moira like they were two marbles. Those guns were nothing more than pea shooting noise makers to something practically made of hardened earth. Quentin pressed his cheek against the rough bark and redoubled his concentration; they were clearly running out of time.

"Potestatem inclamo..." he restarted before the varren released an ear-splitting roar. The water mage groaned, getting irritated. The least they could do down there is be the distraction they said they would be. He closed his eyes. He returned to basic principles. Water was not shaken by such meaningless things. Water flowed. It could be diverted but it continued to flow, always choosing its own course. Where it went, it became the unstoppable force...

The tree swayed as the varren stamped its foot. Quentin screwed his eyes more tightly closed.

...the unstoppable force that drowned even the immovable object! "Potestatem inclamo favorique te oro!"

Something out of the corner of his eye made Marcus turn. He saw tiny rivulets of water flowing in gentle arcs, babbling playfully, from out of the yellowing leaves of the tree. They swirled around in a complex pattern of intertwined snakes before amassing in a growing sphere of water balanced in the air between Quentin's hands. The sphere started out as no larger than a small orange. It then grew to the size of a grapefruit, and then to the size of a football, and then it was large enough to be enough ammo for a twenty-four hour water balloon carpet bombing. Marcus could also see Quentin struggling under the effort to keep the mass in check. Behind his spectacles, the wind mage's eyes met the water mage's eyes behind his sunglasses.

Dead leaves were fluttering out of the tree. Branches were becoming knotted and gnarled. The trunk was withering and thinning. Quentin hoisted the water sphere above his head and nodded to Marcus.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Cuttersbury: Trail towards Drych Lake

When Trixie responded in the negative, Quentin's heart sank a bit. He really had hoped that Trixie was going to be the superheroine she said she was and save him (and, by extension, everyone else). This Big Bro Varren was bad news.

POW. Down went Moira and Syed. POW. Down went Trixie. POW. Down went Estelle. The Pride was getting a royal beating. In spite of himself, Quentin remarked, "Daaaaamn." He would not be surprised if some of them felt those blows for the next week. Aria called out, "I'm going to distract him! Attack while you can."

Quentin touched his fellow mage's arm.

"Marcus, gimme a boost. We gotta make this work."

The water mage broke out into a run for the tree again. Marcus, understanding his brother mage, gave Quentin a magical bounce. Quentin shot up into the air and landed high in the tree, perching himself along two branches. Quentin knew he looked like a treehugger when he did this, but he wrapped his arms around the trunk and concentrated. He could feel sweat breaking out on his forehead and his cheeks reddening from the exertion. The mage sucked in air through his teeth and shouted down, "Keep him away from me! This'll take a lot of work!"

Quentin shut his eyes and focused intensely on the lifeblood flowing through the tree. Water pulsed up from the ground, sucked in through the roots, coursing through the wood and out to the tiny veins on every little leaf. The tree croaked in his ears. It was inaudible to anyone not so connected to the tree.

~I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't have to. I'm so sorry. There's no other way. You're the best tree a dude could ask for.~

The tree made a noise only Quentin could hear. It was like the sound of the last of a liquid being drained through a straw. Tears streamed from the water mage's eyes and down his cheeks. For a moment, he was grateful he was a relative novice; if he had real talent, he would have been able to desiccate the plant entirely. As it was, all he could do was draw hard from the leaves and branches. That was more than enough. Quentin hoped that whatever was going on down below him to distract the varren, it was working and keeping it away from him...

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Cuttersbury: Trail towards Drych Lake

Quentin was blown away.

Ha ha, blown away. Oh man, he was killing himself. Oh, right, the fight!

The water mage was deeply impressed. It was not just any dude that could switch off with such skill from buffing allies to his primary skill set and then switching again to his secondary talent. Quentin wondered what rank Marcus had attained already. A very high D or a low C, perhaps? He would have to ask later. Right now, there was a bigger problem - much bigger.

"Oh my gods, what is that smell?" Quentin asked aloud, his face crinkling at Trixie's bombardment of olfactory offense. He could not help but react, even knowing full well there was a Big Bro Varren eyeing all of them and striking a pose. This was getting weirder by the second. Quentin was no animal expert, but he was pretty darn certain that it was not natural for varrens to wear fashionable clothing or style their spikes into pompadours...or was it? To be fair, not being an animal expert was actually a pretty big deal when it came to this kind thing. Maybe the varrens had evolved to the point where fashion was an important part of their social behavior. Who knew?

Quentin trotted to Marcus's side. "You're real talented too, Marky Mark. I think we make a pretty good team."

He looked over the Big Bro Varren. Damn thing was a poser! It was practically taunting the Pride and Quentin did not like it one bit. This was all a little hard to swallow, like he was still having a nightmare and all that was needed now was the shark cyclone - no, the shark torn--

Quentin snapped his fingers when he caught sight of Trixie grinning with satisfaction. Had she been responsible for that? That clothespin on her nose made him wonder...

"Yo, Super Pixie! You got anything in your arsenal that's got water in it?"

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

All right, I've posted. Your turn, Aki!

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Cuttersbury: Trail towards Drych Lake

Quentin hurried back to the fracas, which was growing more chaotic by the second. Trixie cantered past the mage, riding a Varren like a bucking bronco, and Quentin would surely have laughed if the situation were not so grim. As it was, the Pride looked like it was getting pushed around by these bad-ass bulldozer things. The one red head and the other dude were already grounded.

Man, grounded. Quentin made a note to tell that joke later when this was over. If it was ever over. Although Moira knocked one out of the park with such perfection, that still was like grains of sand from the shore. Wherever one looked, there was always more. Wherever the eye went, another Varren was popping up or popping in, to the frustration of nearly everyone. Quentin was about to join in again when a rock hit him in the back of the shoulder. He spun around; the Varren he had disoriented with a bubble blast to the eyes was now indiscriminately pitching rocks in all directions. The water mage backed away in a hurry, almost twisting his ankle in a hole. He did not stop moving until he nearly collided with Marcus.

Right, Marcus. The dude was a wind mage, so probably he couldn't be of a whole lotta use in pitched combat like this. Well, he seemed to be chanting something, so he was doing what he could. And that was the way of it, wasn't it? Even without water, Quentin had to be doing what he could, too. He snapped his fingers and then reached for the leaves of a low-hanging tree branch. Another rock whizzed by and hit him in the side. He winced and grunted, "Marky, I don't have enough water to make this hurt, so I need a little air on this one. You feelin' me?"

The leaves of the tree shrank from a full, vital verdant to a lovely crimson to a paling gold and finally to a withered, dead brown. Quentin released the branch. Between his hands was a floating pool of water, maybe enough to fill a small bucket. The mage hunkered down in a pose, poised to strike.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Whee, back in action! Have some Halloween music to celebrate.



Calling the next post after Rex.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Really sorry; I'm typing this from my phone. It seems the power cord to my computer fizzled out on me so I'm at a loss until tomorrow when I get a new one. Terribly sorry to give this round a miss.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

I'll set something up with Marcus as soon as I'm home. So glad work's almost over for the day. @_x

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Cuttersbury - Trail towards Drych Lake

When Trixie ran between the electricity and water mages to grab Quentin's hands, Quentin started laughing. She seemed a bit small to be a Guilder, but what she lacked in height, she had more than double in enthusiasm.

"Hi Cutie! I'm Pixie--I mean Trixie! I shoot stuff and make things go boom! I'm sure you know that we're all actually super special awesome superheroes. You gotta be a superhero to join us too, yaknow."

"Of course. I'm one too, you know," Quentin said, winking at her over his sunglasses. "I'm Hydroman. Maybe when we get to the spa, I can show you my moves."

That little conversation ordinarily would have been the last thing on most men's minds when confronted by a pack of poser Varrens with assault on their minds, but Quentin was not most men. His mind rolled back to thinking of himself as Hydroman when a Varren popped up behind him and pounced on him with a take down. Quentin grunted as he hit the ground, enjoying an all-expenses paid dirt nap. It occurred to him at that moment that he had forgotten to pack a canteen with him for the trip from the Guild to the spa. A water mage without water was a surfer without a board.

He gave a low cry when a Varren pelted him in the back with a rock. He scrambled on hands and knees to the side of the trail and stood on unsteady feet. A Varren in a gaudy purple shirt made a strange, hostile chittering sound at him. Quentin backed away slowly at first, but when the Varren dove underground, the mage turned and ran into the grassy growth. His first thought was to climb a tree and hope for the best, but as soon as the Varren sprang out of the earth right in front of him, that thought fell by the wayside. Quentin put his left hand on the tree and then looked at it. Green moss was growing along the trunk. Behind his shades, he glanced at the Varren, which betrayed no emotion. Quentin's right hand rested on his hip.

"So sorry, dude, but...Bulli!"

With a swift, fluid motion, Quentin's left hand drew an arc from the mossy tree to the Varren. A stream of bubbles followed the trail of his digits and got in the creature's eyes. The Varren made another unpleasant sound and flailed in irritation. Had Quentin been a more talented water mage, he probably could have sucked water right out of the grass and turned it on these foes, but drawing water from a large tree was a start. The mage backpedaled, hoping the distraction to the Varren would give him enough time to rejoin his comrades. He hoped they were more prepared for this battle than he was.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Going to post. Sorry if it's not much; I think I'm off my game today. Might have something to do with hearing the word Rapidash in a completely uncomfortable context today.