Roughdragon1

The Crucible - Winner Take All

Dayum I got stomped this round, time to shift to...

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The Crucible - Winner Take All

@Banana Ok

The Crucible - Winner Take All

@ProPro I mean, it wasn't a typo

The Crucible - Winner Take All

Ok, got Saria's looks updated, and a very dialogue-heavy post.

Humanity's Last Army

@ihinka Oh boy, can't wait to see it

The Crucible - Winner Take All

Lost Echo: Saria

The Blood Devil vs Bonesword: Round II

“Better take a deep breath, sister.”

“What?”

It took Bonesword a mere flick of a finger, and a thin stem shot up from the ground behind her, and jabbed her under the right shoulder with a needle-like thorn.

“Gah! What did you…”

Saria felt a near-blinding burning erupt from her sword arm, and the unbelievable pain spread throughout her veins and into the rest of her body. However, the majority of the agony was still focused on her sword arm, and she gasped in pain whenever she moved.

“Wha… What.. is... this…?”

Saria struggled to find air, her breathing ragged and her throat closing, full of pinpricks. Her stomach seized, and she felt acidic bile rise up to her throat.

“Glad you asked. You know those Rhubarb plants? Their stalks are safe to eat, and in fact, are quite delicious, if I remember correctly. The leaves, however, are toxic. I injected you with a concentrated form of the leaves, and sped up the process with my own methods. Probably won’t kill someone like you, but it’ll hurt a bit.”

“You…” she gasped for air, and made sure she had enough breath to say what she wanted to.

“You... will die in pain.”

Unexpectedly, at least to Bonesword, Saria went on the attack. She tried to swing her arm, but it wouldn’t do what she wanted. It swung in front of her limply, and the only thing she could do was keep her hand on her sword.

Bonesword decided to take advantage of the situation, and swung his shroomblade, aiming for the gap between her helmet and her breastplate. Saria could only barely move, but it was enough. The blade missed, and smashed into her helmet, lifting it clean off of her head.

Raven hair revealed itself, and with it a terrifying glare from crimson eyes set upon Bonesword, who unconsciously took a step away from her.

This woman’s a bit scary. Still, it shouldn’t be that hard to kill her. Poison’s most likely working its way through her system now.

He raised his sword, preparing for the final strike. Saria made no move. In fact, she looked as if she had given up. Bonesword knew to not underestimate his opponents, but this seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

Debilitated from the poison, she can’t move that easily. I saw that earlier when she could barely move to block my attack with her helmet.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye then. You can take that scary look off of your face, you know. Ah, whatever. Oh, and just saying, if I break any bones, I’ll just be taking a couple of yours, got it?”

Bonesword took a sharp swing towards Saria’s neck again, aiming to decapitate her. In an extraordinary feat of raw willpower, she raised her sword again, and deflected the blow with her own swing. Stumbling away, Bonesword looked incredulous.

“What? You–You’re poisoned!”

Saria, despite her ragged and hoarse lungs, let out a raspy laugh.

“I’ve... I've already been poisoned earlier by some beast I couldn't even imagine existed... I’ve gotten blasted by an otherworldly girl’s madness-inducing rays... I’ve been tossed around by a sea monster like a toy... A little dessert plant won’t kill me.”

With that, Saria charged forward, wildly swinging her sword at Bonesword, aiming to kill with each and every strike. The undead swordsman deflected each feral blow, confident in his power to wear his opponent out until even the rage within her had been snuffed out like a dying flame.

Saria let her fury take over once again, and when her strikes failed to hit their mark, it made her even more frustrated, so much that when Bonesword raised his blade to deflect another incoming strike, she relented, and instead grabbed his blade with an armored gauntlet.

“Whoa wait, what’re you–”

While she kept the blade out of commission, she pulled him towards herself, and knocked him down once again with a violent knee to the ribs, breaking a few of them. She stood over him, breathing heavily, cracked bones aching, and the two toxins eating away at her very existence. Her eyes beheld an unfathomable bloodlust.

“I've changed my mind. Whatever you do, whatever you throw at me, I. Will. Not. Die. Do you know why? It's because I simply refuse to die by the likes of you!”

The Crucible - Winner Take All

Can I add what Saria looks like without her helmet in the character tab?

Humanity's Last Army

@Fisticuffs@Corporal Lance@Dervish@ihinka@Sisyphus

Okay, finally posted

Humanity's Last Army

Plutonian Outpost, 588th Army of Humanity

Line by line, the Griks fell dead like brittle branches swept away by a summer wind. The violent drum of Krak! Krak! followed by the screaming war cries of the Grik painfully pierced Barry’s ears, but he had to keep shooting, at least until his gun ran out of ammo. The Griks were getting awfully close, their strange banana-bread scent contrasting with the full-on bloodshed occurring at the moment.

One of them reared back, spear in hand, and slung it at Barry, who ducked just in time. However, the projectile slammed into the grunt behind him, piercing his armor and sending him flying back into the ranks. The lieutenant dodged the flying body, and raised his sword once again.

“Form up! Do not break rank!” He commanded.

Easier said than done, Barry lamented.

The Griks weren’t even half gone when the soldiers all felt an otherworldly rumbling. The veterans of the army knew the sound all too well. On the horizon, great, lumbering beasts with star-forged hide headed towards the lines. One dreaded word hung in their minds.

“BRUMAK!”

As if they needed to announce their presence even further, a few of them grabbed hold of boulders and began to hurl them towards the North lines, smashing swaths of Human soldiers along their paths. Barry dodged one, and another nearly smashed Captain Faraday’s company. Speaking of the Captain, she was pissed, to say the least; shouting orders left and right and firing back at the Griks.

“Machine guns! Where’s our goddamn machine guns!” She yelled.

A burly man wearing heavy gear ran up next to Faraday, and with him, a big-ass machine gun.

“Got it, cap’n!”

He readied it on top of a sandbag, and let loose. A combination of the thunderous roar a hail of bullets cut a path through the Grik, and they fell faster than they could replace their ranks. Black blood sprayed into the air as the 7.92mm shrapnel rounds all but halted the Grik advance, at least in their immediate sector. Around them, however, the soldiers weren’t doing as well.

Griks had penetrated their defenses, and troops were being mercilessly slaughtered. Barry watched in horror as a grunt was all but decapitated by a jagged blade, and another one had her arms torn off and was beaten bloody with the detached limbs. Barry tripped over a corpse as he tried to run, and as he crawled away, he saw that the dead soldier couldn’t be older than twelve. It was hard to tell though, with the axe buried in the kid’s face.

Fucking hell. Fuck... Just get me away from here!

The Lieutenant was fighting off three Griks, parrying their blows and strikes with lightning-fast efficiency. In a matter of seconds, he had dispatched them. However, his moment of glory was gunned down by another pale-skinned alien who wielded a firearm. Barry barely felt a thing. His instinct was to survive, and as both Grunts and Griks fell around him in droves, he lost his rifle, and shot blindly at anything that looked remotely pale.

“FALL BACK! FALL BACK!” Captain Faraday yelled.

The mass of soldiers began to fall back in a panic, and the Griks chipped away at the unlucky ones at the back. Meanwhile, a Brumak burst through a wall, crushing a few unlucky grunts under its feet. Some soldiers turned around to fire at the stone giant, but their bullets may as have well been pebbles. The Brumak simply swung a chain attached to its wrist, wiping out about a dozen grunts in a single strike.

The five notable soldiers were lucky to make it away from the massacre, and away from the captured outpost. The bad news was, they were on an open plain. And once again, Griks spewed out of the rubble, followed by the Brumak.

Goddamit, you fucking Bulwark!

Electricity shot through Captain Faraday’s nerves, and without delay she reloaded, switched her rifle to automatic, and fired a storm of bullets at the approaching Grik. The other grunts, including the notable five, raised their inferior rifles to let loose a final hail of bullets towards the surrounding enemy.

They were getting closer, and Barry could tell that people were beginning to panic. Grunts dropped their mags, others threw whatever they could find at the approaching Grik in a futile effort to slow them down, and some simply ran out towards the savage enemy, trying to bat them away with their empty guns. He couldn’t help but feel hopeless. Truly hopeless.

Is this where I die?

The Crucible - Winner Take All

@ProProOh yeah, still need to read that