Xaltwind
Spiffy
dwyer austin
The Otter
Zapdos
Dezuel
Izurich
Danyel
Aku the Samurai
tundrafrog1124Lillianna Steiner
"HE'S AFTER THE CUBE!!!"
The ninja started running, as did MacKensie. From her position closer to the wizard, she ran to cut off the new enemy, leapt into his path and sweeped into a low slash at his leg, aiming for the knee where his armor seemed weakest.
Zigmund looked to his left as MacKensie swooped in, then changed speed instantly. He slowed almost to a stop so he could crouch down at the last second, grabbing the Ranger by the wrist before her dagger could land. He yanked her up as he stood up straight and punched her in the stomach, then tossed her aside. His sight turned back onto Lillianna and he was heading towards her once more.
"Hand it over, woman."
MACKENSIE!!!
Her throat tried to cry out to the Frenchwoman with her name, but all that emerged was a tiny squeaky croak at the very most. It was like her throat was shut up, unable to vocalize the words her mouth was trying to move to say. Like it wasn't just her limbs freezing up, but her very body itself. Even so, she was at least out of her stupor for the moment being despite her inability to answer the murderous enemy's demand of her.
"Oi, if you want that cube your gonna have to go through me." Removing the blue jacket of his kimono, throwing it on the ground. He stood his ground now getting into a fighting stance, but strangely not pulling out his sword. "Your pretty good with that sword of yours, but let's see how good you are with your fists."
"Gladly," was Zigmund's cold response as he ran and jumped straight into a martial stance, testing the giant man with double jab.
Once again, Zigmund felt a tinge of admiration. Joji managed to keep up with a rapid exchange of punches between the two, although Zigmund was merely feeling him out and now caught the Japanese man's fist, steel-dressed fingers with vice-like grip. He yanked the man off balance, at the same time as launching a power right-
"Ahh!" was Zigmund's exclamation of surprise when the talons of Fenna's falcon familiar started tearing at neck and helmet. The falcon's damage was merely cosmetic but enough to annoy and interrupt the ninja from knocking Joji out. What did actually hurt was the following aerial attack from the other Ranger. "Ugh!"
Joji! Fenna! Her falcon! They were desperately trying to stop this thing from getting the cube, and getting to her, but something in Lillianna's gut simply knew one fact for certain: They couldn't stop this thing. But they were trying anyway, because that was all they could do. It was all they could do to try to stay alive, though-
Zigmund turned into a roundhouse kick aimed at Fenna to keep her at bay, then hopped backwards to reset himself. Although he didn't get a chance as Arthur came charging with a swinging anchor and a war cry. Zigmund didn't have time to move, but the anchor crashed through nothing but water.
Zigmund's body had turned completely to water, and after the anchor went through him, the body of water splashed onto the ground.
Arthur couldn't do it. Fenna had a roundhouse kick made at her to try to toss her aside. Joji hadn't even been able to stop him. MacKensie had been gut-punched and tossed aside like a ragdoll.
No matter how hard her body tried to scream her lips couldn't do anything but silently move and shake. Not a single noise could escape the paralyzing terror and fear, not even as she watched the group members trying to defend her be tossed aside or thrown away or ignored like they were almost nothing in the end. Nothing but a speed bump to the enemy as it continued to return to its charge in her direction with clearly murderous intent over and over again.
That wasn't a man or beast, that was some...some thing!
It was some abomination born of the craft of the Witch Queen and her minions, made for a singular purpose to kill anything in its path. It was something well above them in power, that wasn't hard to perceive, which had been sent to kill them all and return the core to its original home like they were nothing but a little fart being dissipated in the wind. She'd hoped something wouldn't catch up to them like this before they got to Valheim, though she'd still feared it all the same still, and now it had appeared out of the blue and the terror began to unfold right before her very eyes.
The puddle did not soak into the ground - it slid over the dirt and rock at speed, away from the attackers to a position behind the wizards. After that, Zigmund's body reformed so fast, it looked like he jumped out of the ground, his physical plate-steel form taking the place of the water once fully formed.
Relentless in his mission, Zigmund once more zoned in on Lillianna and rushed towards her, but now he was angry. Water magic materialized his aqua-blade fist once again, and tried to run the magical blade right through the white-haired woman.
She barely could move her body to turn around in time, placing her pack with the cube in it behind her and away from the ninja charging at her in the process. Even so, the enemy had moved behind them. No one was in between her and the enemy now, and he seemed to be more than simply charging for her...anger. Perhaps that was the right feeling she got from it. Just moving behind her and taking up more directly lethal measures to just get it all over with.
She couldn't get out of the way in tim-
*THUNK*
*SLAM*
*SQUELCH*
*SLAM*
*SQUELCH*
"A-A-Ahhhh..."
A soft squeak came from her now-loosening vocal chords as she was impaled by the water blade in her mid-torso, below her heart for sure (she was still for the moment after all) but above her stomach and not piecing through her pack where the cube was sitting in (at least). The perfect spot to literally knock the air out of her, really, as the body behind the blow likewise crashed into her from behind the stab. It wasn't enough to knock her over, though it was enough to put her body in contact with the murderous enemy who had come after the cube all the same, her hands even grasping his forearms as her staff fell simply to the ground with a smaller 'thud' in the heat of the moment as her hands lost their physical strength from the impact.
And time seemed to slow down, at least to her perception.
Cold water impaling her torso, piercing into organs and twisting slightly on impact with her body, a strange sensation akin to the cool feeling of metal on a cold summer's night before the raw adrenaline numbed the pain away in a heartbeat. At the same time, however, she could still feel the blood...so much blood. But just the warm of it. It was her own lifeblood, which as a warm feeling began to spread from the affected area began pouring out in a spreading warm tide around the blade hilt and over her clothes and onto the ground and their feet as the end of the sword stuck clearly out of her mid-back. Her lungs burned as they tried to scramble for air to breathe in, even as she came to unconsciously realize a lung had been punctured to boot by the attack...or at least hit by it somehow. There wasn't really any time to think about it even in the best case scenario (which this was definitely not).
And yet-
Lightning Boooooooolt!!!
Without a word or sound being made, but looking Zigmund directly in his singular cybernetic eye with deadly determination as blood began to trickle from out of corners of the white-haired girl's mouth as well, the hands and body of the mage coursed with raw electrical lightning being pushed out of itself as quickly and plentifully as it could be. She was attempting to pass it all into the water-capable body of the murderous yet loyal Zigmund from their myriad points of physical contact, or heck keep pushing to discharge it from herself if he tried to back away at least.
As for her death? She'd died once already. She could recall everything before it went black, and she'd never be able to forget it. She'd never see her uncle's home again. She'd maybe even die right now within these forsaken wilds in a new world without getting a chance to live a new life here or something. A tragedy at best...perhaps being a pathetic second existence at worst.
She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to rage. She wanted to do so many things in that moment, and in so many other moments. But if there was one consolation to her in this, it was that this fool of an overpowered enemy had made one crucial mistake in all of this as it passed through her mind quietly in the very moment before the lightning:
'You should have gone for the heart or the head, you idiot!'
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If her attack succeeded, Lillianna wouldn't stop doing so until she would drain herself of all the magical energy her body could muster or take in or carry...whatever the case was in that situation. If it succeeded, as she would push electricity into the enemy and likewise end up shocking herself at the same time in such a case, the group would hear the vocal chords of the mage compulsively shrieking in a terrible yet mighty scream of incredible pain out into the open air around them. Crackling white lightning coursing over her body and that of the enemy's would be highly visible if she succeeded in her attack, creating a proper light show and cooking any moisture or grass and such on the ground below their feet at the same time due to the heat produced by it all.
Meanwhile the mage's brain would only drive with one intent, one goal, one thought she was still capable of doing even under these circumstances...'more'. More of what, one may ask? More Lightning, until the point she could push out no more of it..
