Schizoid Writer

The Gauntlet

Aight, posted!

The Gauntlet

Saria Silverlocke

Saria hadn't expected mounting the beast to be so difficult. Along with the piercing spines that stabbed into her flesh like needles, it flopped around like a dying fish being roasted alive. She had it her head as it bucked her off, and even though she wore a helmet, the impact was hard enough that it knocked her unconscious. Within her short sleep, she saw dreams of fire and misery. Memories of her home, her part in destroying it all.

A strange series of mechanical noises awoke her from her nightmares. Looking around, there was indeed fire all around her. It seemed that the spider chose to ignore her, for the time being. A rare mercy, that an opponent was too distracted to deal the killing blow. It infuriated her, that she could be so careless. She was behind the spider now, its bulbous abdomen dripping silk.

That's unsightly.

She assumed that the creature was armored the same throughout its entire body, save the woman-growth that protruded from its head.

I suppose it's the only place it can be hurt. Seems like I'll just have to try again.

The spiked abdomen was unclimbable, so she opted for an easier approach–– running underneath it to reach the front. Its legs were long enough, so besides a stray spike or two, she was successful, save a few scratches to the armor. On the other side, she spotted a behemoth made of metal charging towards the spider-beast, like a god of iron ripped straight out of the legends. Their clash was one to behold, two titans brawling while others either helped or got out of the way.

Every fiber in her body strained to get into the fight, to take a swipe at the spider-beast while it was distracted. But any sane person in her situation would stand back and let them fight, lest they be struck with a stray limb or spider-web.

Die, beast! Saria jumped between the two titans just as they began to grapple, confident that the steel golem wouldn't crush her. Her sole concern was of the spider-beast; she'd take a swing at the fleshy head while it was distracted, and with some luck, end the fight.

She jumped, a red arc of blood trailing her sword as she drew closer to the beast.

The Gauntlet

@Randomness She'll be in, she's just taking a nap for a bit

The Gauntlet

Sorry bout the delay, just got done with finals :)

The Gauntlet

Saria Silverlocke

How am I not dead? That was Saria's first thought as the bristled limb smacked her right in the breastplate, sending her flying back a dozen feet in a flash of green. There was an advantage of wearing a fully-protective set of steel armor, and that came in the form of avoiding injuries from cuts and arrows. But when one's momentum shifts in such sudden fashion, if the armor doesn't give, the body will. She coughed blood as she lay on the ground, the smell of copper infecting her helmet. It was a stench she was used to. She took a deep breath, an ache tearing across her chest. It must have been a fractured rib or two.

She took a moment, but not to rest. While her insides still burned from the impact, while blood clogged her throat, she observed. The spider was assaulted on all sides, and while it did its best to fight back, the sheer power and numbers her side possessed seemed to be gaining them the edge.

My side.... I suppose they're not attacking me. For now, anyway. Around the spider a multitude of strange individuals used strange techniques and skills to injure and out-wit it. Fire, ice, and strange magic were all used in conjunction to bring an end to the beast. Someone among them, a girl with long ears and strange green clothing seemed a bit familiar to her for a reason she couldn't pinpoint at the moment. If she lived, Saria would make sure she found out why.
Another interesting sight was the strange statue-like being that laid on the floor surrounded by more than a few people. It seemed as if they were trying to get it upright, a stout man with metal appendages leading the effort. A legless girl caught her interest as well. Actually, less of her interest and more of her pity.

She won't last long, not with that injury. Staggering to her feet, Saria let the blood dripping from her helmet fall upon her blade. As the crimson drops stained the red-tinged steel, she felt the blade grow hungry. And when it grew hungry, it ate away at her, slowly. She could never sate its appetite, not while she was alive, at least. She felt blood being ripped from her pores and onto the blade itself, until the steel had been enveloped in a sharper sheath made from her own life-force.

Saria saw her chance as the girl in green launched a verdant blast of energy towards the hellish arachnid. Once again, Saria charged forth like a wild animal, prioritizing speed over anything else at that moment. She stomped past the upturned metal statue-thing, nearly stepping on a girl ensnared by silky-white webs, and almost shoulder-checking another woman holding a mirror. Just as the energy impacted the creature, she readied herself to deal a final blow.

She could not see the weak spot through the blast of green, and instead of aiming for an area she couldn't see, launched her self upwards, where she knew the thing's body would be. As the creature regained its bearings, she wagered that she'd land on its back. From there, a strike, two strikes, seventeen strikes from her blade would be no problem. Just as long as she hung on.

The Gauntlet

@Zoey White I second this

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@Crazytazer I feel like he'll nut when he finds out that mechsuits exist.

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Alright, posted mine!

The Gauntlet

Saria Silverlocke

A fight it is then. Saria had been hit by the spider-thing's initial attack, sending her flying back to the edge of the room, smacking the wall. Head spinning, she quickly shook it off, regaining her balance. Facing the abomination, she assessed the situation at a glance. There were about a dozen people all around the spider-thing, a few ending up next to her. They all wore strange garments, like they’d come from entirely different worlds.

She shook the thought. She didn’t have time to think about the intricacies of the ones around her. Surviving–– no, killing the beast would be the only reprieve from this situation, even if the others ended up being hostile. She was certain she could deal with them, so the spider came first. Glancing at the ones around her, she saw that some were still stuck on the floor, while others were up on their feet like her.

Saria would be the first to strike, but even as instinct coaxed every fiber of her body to rush out and beat it to the ground, her mind kept her focused, but just as deadly. Drawing the Red Blade, its crimson glow accentuated by the strange light that didn’t seem to have a source, she saw the beast begin its charge, dagger-like spines bristling all around its bulbous body, sharp enough to flay an unarmored man with a single swipe.

“If you want to live…” Saria said to the ones around her, some attentive, some not. She clenched her blade like she was strangling her enemy, preparing for battle.

“...Then you’d better get up!” She charged forth, sprinting at the beast. It was taller than her, far taller. If she was any common footsoldier, she’d be speared by a barbed limb before she could get in range. But she was no common footsoldier; she would be insulted with such a comparison. The first limb came like a pike wrapped in barbed wire. She deftly parried the strike as she closed in, feeling something in her shoulder yank painfully as her sword caught the beast’s weapons. It hurt, but she powered through nonetheless, severing some of the spider’s razor-sharp bristles.

But its legs were not what she was aiming for. No, her target was the soft, fleshy bit at the gap between the monster’s eyes. That woman had to be its weak spot. As Saria prepared to deliver a decisive blow, she knew that if she missed, or if the woman had tougher skin than she’d imagined, or if the beast recovered fast enough to intercept her, she would be in grave danger. She doubted that mere strangers would risk themselves to help her, so she eliminated them from the equation. At that moment, she sincerely believed it was either her or the abomination.

She lunged for the beast, blade raised, knowing that she would either win or die.

The Gauntlet

The Blood Devil

Saria Silverlocke

Age: 26
Sex: Female

Appearance

Saria

Part of her face

Frenzy

Armaments

The Red Blade: An heirloom passed down through countless generations of Saria’s family, and the weapon central to Saria’s fighting capability. Its true origin is unknown. However, tales told to her throughout childhood claim that it was forged by the Jogun, a race of perfect warriors, with the ore of Baskarite, a metal originating from the deepest depths of the earth. The Red Blade was their legacy.

However it came to be, and whoever made it, the Red Blade seems to be nearly indestructible, withstanding the most scorching temperatures from a smith’s forge as well as seemingly repelling the strikes of a blacksmith’s hammer without the slightest scratch. Attempts to dull it have been fruitless. Strangely enough, attempts to sharpen it also have no effect. Wielded properly, the Red Blade can cut through most types of armor, excluding metal.

Silverlocke Armor: Saria wears head-to-toe armor composed of ordinary steel plate, blackened and custom fitted to the shapes and contours of her own body. More steel plates hang from her armor, covering the hip and shoulder joints. The armor is mostly made for intimidation and ceremonial purposes rather than practical purposes, but still functions as effective protection.

Reactionary Quickening: Saria’s sword fighting capability stems from countless hours of brutal, grueling training designed to create a warrior worthy of using the Red Blade. This included “exercises” such as dodging and deflecting lethal projectiles from all different directions, blindfolded. She learned to not just use her sight in battle, but sounds and instincts. Combined, Saria possessed the reaction speed and precision of a true warrior.

Enhanced Strength: Saria not only needed to keep up with the rest of her siblings in terms of speed, but also in strength. Even though she was a girl, she was required to fight her brothers as well as her sister in order to become worthy of the blade. She seldom won against her brothers in hand-to-hand combat, since they possessed much more brute strength than she did, but to the average person, she is a bear in a woman’s skin, capable of extraordinary feats with the use of her strength alone, such as throwing people twice her weight over her shoulder, or caving in bones with her bare handed strikes.

Blood Blade: Saria is connected to the Red Blade in more ways than one. Sure, it is an heirloom bestowed upon her with the highest honor of the Silverlocke family, but per tradition, Saria was cut with the blade, imbuing her blood with the sword for the first time. From then on, she had become the only one in the world who could tap into the blade’s true power: Blood. Through the imbuement of her own blood, a crimson coat covers her sword, effectively sharpening it even further by using her own life force as a blade. Of course, this has a negative effect. The use of her own blood as a blade slowly drains her strength, and could kill her if left unchecked.

Pain Resistance: Saria is no stranger to pain, and can overcome and ignore wounds most people consider “grievous” or “crippling”. However, this does not make her immortal. She is still human, after all. She tends to get herself hurt more than she needs to.

Frenzy: It is said that the Red Blade contains demonic origin. From the depths of the earth its ore was mined, and from the depths of the earth it was forged. Therefore, a bit of demonic influence was inevitable. When Saria’s pain is more than she can handle, when she is at her absolute limit, her sword fuses to her hands, and forcibly draws blood from her body in order to create a blood blade (Blood Blade ability automatically activated). In this state, Saria is on her last legs, and will fight purely to survive, like a feral animal.

An aura of fire surrounds her, presumably an effect of the Red Blade binding to her soul. Her strength and speed is immensely increased, such that she could cut boulders with the strength of a sword strike.

This state is what earned her the nickname, Blood Devil. When she slaughtered her family, the only thing onlookers saw was her, clad in black, bloody armor, emerging from her family’s home that was then in flames.

Personality

Saria is by all means a hot-headed individual, and rightly so. From the day she could walk, she knew nothing but war. Risen by any other family, she may have had the passion for things such as the arts, or scholarly pursuits, but the Silverlocke family has effectively ironed out troublesome things such as these. The only thing left in her mind was an unfaltering fire, a will to fight, conquer, and destroy.

Bio

Raised in the Silverlocke family, Saria was one of five siblings, three of them being boys and another a girl. From the day she could walk, she was subjected to cruel punishment from her parents and her siblings alike. The reason for this abuse was to inject into her a sense of hostility and pain from the earliest age possible, and begin to kindle the flames of a warrior. However her sister, Alina, was more merciful to her than the others.

At the age of five, her training began. She was taught to wield a sword, and study the one “form” of fighting shared in the Silverlocke family: Darh Krile. (Jogun translation: Death Blow). The Silverlocke style of combat focused on overwhelming opponents with pure offensive capability. She was taught to never hold back in a fight, that self-preservation was a vice, preventing her from reaching her true path as a warrior. Years passed, and her sense of self deteriorated, her only savior was Alina, who seemed to be the one compassionate voice in her life.

At twelve, Saria began to “make progress”, or as her parents had put it. She began to best her brothers in combat, albeit not often. Alina wasn’t the warrior her parents wanted her to be, as she grew to be more of a pacifist. In a tragic “incident”, Alina had a large stone tied to her feet, and was told to swim across the lake nearest to their home. She never made it. Saria became filled with rage at her death, even moreso when her family seemed not to care much about it. “A good riddance,” as her parents called it. Saria began to plot her revenge, and she would become the Silverlocke heir in order to achieve it.

By nineteen, Saria had struggled through years of abuse and training, her only goal was the destruction of her entire family. Her personality took a dark turn, and she mercilessly beat her brothers, as they did to her before. When she won the right to the Silverlocke armor, and therefore the Red Blade, the first thing she did was slaughter her parents and brothers, not only for Alina, but for herself.

Afterwards, with her only companion being the Red Blade, she wandered the world, seeking worthy opponents to fight. Part of this was to reinforce her sense of self, her own identity, and part of it was to find an opponent she deemed worthy of killing her, to rid her of this cursed existence. Until this happens she searches still, a woman wanting to die.

Her fighting style is peculiar. Form? Technique? Elegance? Merely an afterthought. Through raw, unhinged power, Saria aims to destroy completely and indiscriminately, and this is shown through her fighting style. Saria is rarely, if ever, on the defense. During combat, she will do anything possible to get the edge in a fight, including letting opponents injure her in order to gain an advantage.

Saria is a close range powerhouse. Her own unfettered rage powers her strikes, aiming to put all of her effort into physically breaking her opponent and their defenses. Fighters who use ranged attacks or sorcery infuriate Saria, since she sees combat as a purely melee-focused altercation. To her, ranged attackers and mages are cowards who cannot stomach the will to fight honorably. This style of combat does have its disadvantages, the most obvious being that Saria is weak to ranged attacks, since the only thing she can do is try and get closer to them. Also, Saria is tough, but not immortal. Attacks that slip through her defenses will hurt her, and usually, they hurt her severely.