Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Feb 25, 2019 19:40:22 GMT -6
Spires of earthy-brown rock rose into the red sky above, some as far as the eye could see. Others among them looked dotted with small holes for the various creatures that lived out in these wastelands. Rocks tumbled down the spires and the chitter of various animals—some dangerous, some not—bounced between the towers of rocks that surrounded Methus. His back felt cold, bare against the rough, craggy stone, as he slowed his breathing to a near complete and total stop. His mind reached out, frantic to find any trace of Inna before she found him.
This new exercise of theirs had been Methus’ idea. They both became dramatically more powerful over the weeks, to the point that their own strength dramatically outclassed Achi at his peak back when they fought on Namek. More importantly than that, at least to Methus, they both made great strides in their missions to acquire new skills. Methus, to master the ability to hide his own Battle Power from others, and Inna to peer into the minds of those around her in the same way she peered through the cosmos to watch the lives of mortals that captured her interest. The past week brought great strides for Methus in particular.
Now they both hid themselves among the rocky spires of Vegeta, a wasteland that apparently Celirii—their latest target for recruitment—roamed around in as well. As interested as Methus was in meeting another one of these Saiyans, he agreed to let Yacha do the initial talking. He and Celirii could speak after the fact, to see just how interested the young woman really was in what they wanted to do or if, like Yacha, she hopped along for the ride and little else.
The sound of footsteps snapped Methus back into focus. He and Inna started their fight—an all-out brawl using their new strength and abilities alike—a solid ten minutes ago. Since then, they traded blasts of energy and hid from each other, seeking out the opportunity to catch their target off-guard. Inna reveled in the combat more than he ever thought she would, which made his disadvantage even more apparent: Methus insisted on no transformations, which put Inna’s raw power significantly beyond his own without the enhancements of his Kingsblood heritage and the latent, raw power that it dragged out his body.
Yet, he knew that if he wanted to truly become more powerful, he needed to push himself without relying on it. It also meant that, in a head-on collision, Inna held a decisive lead that would certainly end in his total defeat.
Methus pressed both of his hands flat against the rock he forced his back against. Without weapons, since neither wanted the other dead, Methus forced himself even further out of his comfort zone. Instead, he focused on keeping his Battle Power hidden and trying to find Inna and her footsteps through the vibrations that carried through the earthy rock which surrounded them both.
He felt nothing, just like when they fought blind on the ship during their voyage to this planet.
Slowly, he let his breath out, for fear of Inna hearing him exhale and sneaking up on him. Against his better judgement, he reached up with one of his hands and turned to face the spire. He grabbed hold of some rock and dragged his thickly muscled chest up it. A bare foot braced against an outcropping in the spire and he reached even higher with his other hand. Over and over, he put one hand above the other until he reached the top of the spire and peered his crimson eyes over the summit, to see if he could spot her dart between the towers from above.
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Post by Inna on Mar 13, 2019 20:57:56 GMT -6
She felt naked without her spear.
While she should have been far, far stronger than Methus like this, they had been sharing what felt like equal blows each time they collided. His strikes were more precise and better trained, outclassing her in just about every regard in terms of raw power. While she had certainly learned a vast amount in the comparatively short period of time she had been with him, it wasn't enough to make up for his years of experience towering over her. So it was no wonder that both parties were wary of each other.
The only saving grace was that they were both truly equal when it came to knowing where the other was. Methus had, finally, learned to tap into the skill of suppressing his battle power; a skill that he had been envious of her since practically day one. In a way, it was rewarding for her, too, to see him overcome what had been such a difficult task. Now neither could sense the other. Inna simply could not -- she never bothered to learn -- and Methus was still unable to see through her guise.
At some point in their spar, Inna had broken away from him, putting a respectable distance between the combatants just long enough to catch her breath. And just far enough that maybe he wouldn't notice her ever so quietly lift herself into the air. She grabbed onto the side of the pillar, digging her hands and feet into it as if to climb it, but used just enough of her energy to speed her way to the top without risking any rocks falling loose and giving away her position. Getting the high ground, at that point in time, seemed wise.
When she crouched atop the mostly flat pillar, violet eyes scanned the horizon to confirm that he hadn't had her idea yet, then darted to the thirsty ground below. No movement or signs of life caught her attention. Moderately confident that her elevated position would keep her away from where he would be expecting her, she kicked off from the pillar and landed on the next closest. Silently, she crouched once more and repeated the process. Though as she kicked off, rocks tumbled from her previous perch, loudly announcing her movement, or perhaps blending into the ambient noise of the critters lurking in the stony towers. Either way, she was quick to go still and hunker down atop her newest perch.
Still no sign of him.
Her heart thundered in her chest in anticipation of him jumping out from behind with a fearsome kick or punch to the back of her head. That was, without a doubt, something he would most certainly do. The fear was enough for her to keep herself low, eyes darting about for him. No longer would she rush and pursue him, but instead wait for anything that would hint at his location. A subtle noise that sounded too man-made, or a flash of indigo hair matched with crimson eyes. Anything that--
Sharp eyes snapped to a spire in front of her, slightly to the left. Just as they focused, her eyes met his. He peered at her from over the rocky shield, nearly all of his body covered as opposed to her so openly sitting there.
Before she even fully processed the situation, she kicked off her current tower. No longer was she mindful of her weight and delivered enough forced for the meager pillar to crumble at the top. Heavy chunks of rock toppled to the ground, shattering into smaller bits as they collided against their former home and the ground below. The force of her kick-off transferred to her fist as she wound it up and sought to simply punch through the monolith shielding Methus. A savage blow straight to the top part that would, if all went according to plan, would not only disrupt his balance and provide a better opening for her.
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Mar 14, 2019 16:17:41 GMT -6
This was getting them nowhere, Methus decided. Inna did not even have the ability to sense his Battle Power the way he could feel and see her own. This wasteland was massive. As far as they both knew, they were walking, or running, in completely opposite directions and only getting further and further away from each other. If this went on much longer, one was going to get downright bored and go outright looking for the other so they could start this over. Without borders on the area they wanted to fight in, they could not even guarantee that they would run into each other.
Even if Methus pushed his power to the absolute limit, it wouldn’t matter. The only thing Inna could go off were the rumblings as he tapped into his absolute, full power, and chase him down that way. One of them had to reveal themselves to the other—and Inna, needing to hide her powers from Methus’ sixth sense, likely would not take that risk herself.
With a grunt, Methus slapped the spire of rock in front of him. He backed up and twisted his neck from side to side. It cracked and popped repeatedly, and he pushed against the sides of his head with a hand to help further over-extend it. Smaller rocks tumbled down the spire as Methus turned his gaze skyward: red, dotted with fluffy clouds, like usual. No one up there, certainly not Inna. She would have a hard time flying that high without revealing her presence to him and his prying search.
No doubt, she would continue to hide until he made the first move.
Or so he thought, until the rocks of the spire in front of him exploded. Brown shards erupted in his face, cut open his cheek, and smashed against bare chest. They shattered further, turned into dust, and through the toppling tower of rock, Methus saw Inna’s arm. The rest of her body was a silhouette hidden by the dust and debris the sudden eruption created and, in that split-second of realization, Methus hurled himself into the air.
He jumped straight up and spiraled side-over-side as he rose higher and higher above. He saw Inna below, on the other side of the rocky spire he hid behind, having shattered it with her bare fist. The rocks continued to fall to the ground and scatter across the stone and dirt beneath her as the seconds ticked by and Methus rose higher and higher yet.
Then, with a wave of his arm, he shouted down at Inna. As if he had drawn a line through the air with his spear, a trail of bright, crimson energy—like the filament of a light bulb—burned to life. It glowed bright even as Methus rose above it before, suddenly, a red pulse made it that much brighter. A moment later and a shrieking cacophony followed as small blast after small blast rained down from the filament of energy and started to crash into the entire wasteland. Entire spires of rock toppled and a thick cloud of dust enveloped the surface below Methus as he wildly attacked everything in sight.
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Post by Inna on Mar 14, 2019 17:25:54 GMT -6
With the cat out of the bag, there was no point in playing hide and seek anymore. Inna's energy flared to life around her, kicking away the dust that still clung in the air and shooting away small rocks that had the misfortune of being too close. She let the warm sensation of her ki flowing through her boody revitalize her confidence for just a moment before she rocketed through the air straight for her target.
She had learned slowly that much of her battle style was similar to the obsessive, enthralled way she treated mortals. Close range, intimate fights that left both parties breathless as they wailed on each other until the other passed out. The running and hiding always pained her, dragging out the moment and edging her for the good stuff. There was merit in stealth and she recognized that, but when it came down to it, she was always smiling in moments like this. A smile that hardly even faltered as she rushed through the wave of concussive energy Methus has spattered in her vague direction.
Even the blasts that just brushed against her body, singing at the fabric of her kimono, stung and hissed as they rushed by. The ones that found purchase square on her body hit with enough force to shake her flight, twisting her body ever so slightly out of balance only for her to instantly right herself.
As she broke through the barrage, her hand lifted as if to mimic raising her spear. In seconds, a violet wave of raw ki burst from her palm as an indistinct, long shape. Her knuckles whitened as she gripped at the raw energy, as if to imply it was a physical thing now, and she winded up the pitch all while rushing straight towards Methus. Eyes pinned on her target, even as she primed her attack, she chased him relentlessly, refusing to allow him any wiggle room or means of escape.
And when she was close enough, she lunged forward. The front of the long beam of ki that only vaguely resembled a spear or lance shrieked as it was thrust forward. Inna's free hand caught the back end of the ki-spear to add an extra oomph to the final thrust at Methus. The head of the spear, sharp and cackling with pure energy, sought to pierce him straight through the chest.
Ah... Maybe she was getting a bit carried away?
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Mar 14, 2019 18:01:57 GMT -6
Beneath him, a furious violet bloomed in his vision and tickled at his sixth sense. Inna’s presence, once hidden, suddenly washed out the rest of the world around them. All he could see, and feel, was her. Her raw power flooded everything else and the burst of raw power hurled away the pillar of stone as it continued to shatter to pieces in front of her. The rocks crashed against the wasteland around her and, for a moment after that, time seemed to return to normal. Methus felt his heartbeat slow and watched as his red volley rained down on the entire mountainous region below, swallowing Inna back up a moment later.
In his entire life, he never even imagined that he could feel this strong. What made Inna’s presence feel so grand now? She was much stronger than he was in his current state. If he didn’t tap into the body-accelerating powers of his Kingsblood genetics, he would almost certainly lose. He never fully realized just how much further she had risen above him without that power at his disposal. This was a bad idea by any sensible.
Yet, he felt excitement quicken his pulse. He felt his lips curl into a wild grin. When he watched her rise through the onslaught of energy that he unleashed upon her, watched as bolts crashed into her body and robes with fiery explosions, and watched even still as she continued her unceasing rise to him. He even watched as she formed in her hand a solid mass of violet energy, forced it to take shape, and then grab hold of the speed-forged weapon as if she had done it a million times already.
In reality, he never once saw her do something like this before. It was new.
Then, with a great thrust, he felt her stab it straight into his guts. His hands moved too slow to catch it and, instead, gripped it tight only after it plunged through his abdominals, his organs, and then out his back. The bare skin of his hands hissed as they burnt against the energy. Methus coughed, choked, and then vomited deeply red blood from his mouth that splattered all over both of their hands. A red stain grew along his exposed, shirtless gut, and started to spread into the beige pants he wore beneath.
At first, he stared down at the new wound and felt the fiery energy burn through his insides. Then, with great pain, lifted his head, eyes wide with agony and fury, to lock on to Inna’s.
“That could have killed me,” he pointed out to her, his voice deep and guttural.
“Good job.”
With a deep roar, one that half-choked on the blood he felt get forced up his esophagus, Methus gripped into the spear in his gut harder. The hissing and steaming from his burning hands got louder and louder with each passing second until, suddenly, the violet spear in his gut shattered into thousands of violet particles. They evaporated around him, rising up into the air like rainbow-colored, glittering snow before they vanished entirely.
Then, with another grunt of pain, and another roar, Methus pointed both of his open hands right at Inna’s face. Crimson light enveloped his open hands before a wave, larger than Inna herself, lurched out and threatened to swallow her whole.
As it did, the flesh around Methus’ wound started to crawl, pulling itself back together as if his body were made of slime instead of muscle, blood, and bone.
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Post by Inna on Mar 14, 2019 18:34:29 GMT -6
There it was. That was the look. His face twisting and grimacing with pain. Anger and pain dancing together behind a wide-eyed, wild stare. That was what she wanted and why she clung close in battle and chased after her foes. To catch glimpses of that look. She couldn't tear her eyes away even as he shattered her ki, dispelling it like it was nothing more than an ember caught in a stray breeze.
With a roar and a blast of power, he was set free and his body began stitching itself together. It was a sight that would make anyone's skin crawl should they stare long enough, but still Inna's eyes were fixated on his own. Even was red consumed her world and wrapped around her body, the last thing Methus would see was her smug grin and self-satisfied glimmer in her eyes.
The force of the blast that she had made zero attempt to dodge was enough to push her back a few paces. Wind buffeted against the nearby spire of rock that dared to reach too close to them. Rocks and debris were shook loose from the resulting torrent of wind, the sounds echoing and bouncing all around the cavern-like desert.
And when the dust settled and his energy no longer burned out her form, she remained floating with little to show of his attack. Her kimono was frayed and burned, as expected, and her hair now looked far more like a frizzy mess than the clean, silken way she normally had it, but aside from a bit of discoloration on the right side of her face, she looked otherwise fine.
"What do you expect when I have to compete with that?" Inna called out, cocky as can be after realizing how minimal his damage output was.
With arms crossed, her eyes flicked down to where she had struck just seconds ago. Already, the flesh looked normal on the outside. Perhaps a little paler than the rest of his body as it continued to work on his innards, but a bystander would be none the wiser to what had just happened.
Inna floated back just a little more and let her arms drop to her side. Once more a long spear of furious, violet energy sparked to life between her fingers. The weapon shifted and squirmed from time to time, as if she was struggling to keep its form, but quickly settled back to a stiff position when she lowered her body and wrapped her other hand around the lower part of it. She kept her body low and close to the make-shift weapon in a grounded, defensive stance.
"That being said," Inna said softly as she smirked. Her eyes flicked back up to meet his stare. "You'll have to try much harder if you want me to break a sweat."
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Mar 14, 2019 19:07:11 GMT -6
The smell of singed, burnt flesh filled the air between the two of them—but not nearly as much as Methus expected. When the smoke from his red blast evaporated from around Inna, he saw the way his various attacks burnt away at her robes, left her hair burnt, and spread a thin sheen of red across half the skin on her face. It had to hurt, he had no doubt about that, but she seemed otherwise fully functional. Methus, on the other hand, would have had a hard time fighting with that wound if it stayed the way it was for the rest of the fight. Too much of that and he would have had to yield or risk actually dying.
The wound in his gut still hadn’t finished regenerating, either. Methus’ unconsciously covered the stab wound with a hand and felt that, at the very least, the skin and muscle had pulled back together both on the entry and exit wounds, but the insides and organs themselves still needed to come back together.
Slowly, Methus floated backwards and away from Inna as she spoke and dipped, in mid-air, into a stance of her own. She summoned another violet spear into her hands—their promise not to use their weapons being stretched by this specific tactic—and Methus just grinned at her. After he put a few more meters between the two of them, given how much faster she was than him right now, he grinned at her and even laughed some himself.
“What are you talking about?” He laughed a little bit more and raised two fists until they were level with his head, giving it a defensive A-Frame. “I can do this all day, Inna.”
Just to prove his point, Methus threw a series of punches through the air. A few left-handed jabs followed by right hooks, and then a much wider, heavier left-handed haymaker to finish the series. The air whistled through each punch and, just like that, he brought his arms back up to protect him from any strike Inna might try while he gave his confident little demonstration.
“But you better not let me go,” he pointed out to her and nodded his head forward. “If I escape now, it’ll be me who has a much easier time finding you next. All of that scary, divine strength you have won’t mean a damn thing because you can’t sense my energy.”
And even if you could, I can hide it now, thanks to you, Methus thought, then grinned a little more at her. After all, she had, like him, grown as well, and her telepathy developed much closer to perfection thanks to her consistent efforts. While he mastered hiding his Battle Power sooner than she had mastered peering into minds, he suspected her skill would be much more useful later on.
That, and she may have mastered it already and simply not told him how much extra practice she already got in.
“Here, just because you’ve done such a good job?” Methus continued with a raised eyebrow.
“You go first, free of charge.”
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Post by Inna on Mar 22, 2019 20:26:15 GMT -6
"You can only regenerate so much," Inna said with a soft smirk.
An impressive skill that had her completely baffled the first time she saw one of his kind use it, coupled with their inherent durability made the Phaethonians masters of endurance. But those defenses were not insurmountable and had their limits. Limits that, thanks to their closeness, Inna was pretty familiar with. And without the aid of his transformed state, it was really only a matter of time.
Especially since she had her own tricks up her sleeves now.
"But who am I to turn down such a generous offer?" Inna smiled lowly at Methus as he all but beckoned for her to hit him square in the face. A taunt that he would certainly regret.
She shifted out of her defense stance, confident that he wouldn't (or, more accurately, couldn't) hurt her, and raised her spear over hr shoulder. The ki burned and licked at the air around it like a mass of untamed fire that sought to burn away anything that it touched. The effect was most illusory, as her ki was no more "fiery" than his bursts of energy that he had sent her way just moments ago, but the imagery was nice and the purple glow it cast on the side of her face was certainly worth admiring.
With no preamble, she rocketed forward in an amazing burst of speed. The air around her shrieked as she tore through it, spear held high as her body pivoted. She swung it at a sideways, upward angle just as she closed in on him and when there was hardly any time left for him to react, she finished the motion. The ki-spear hissed as it tore through the air when Inna swung it down towards Methus with every intention of catching him on the head or shoulder and sending him tumbling to the ground. The blunt side of the "spear" would collide with his body, exploding in a burst of brilliant hues of purple as the pent up ki was expelled. The initial hit wasn't what would hurt the most; it was that release of energy focused on a small, tender part of his body.
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Mar 22, 2019 21:07:15 GMT -6
“Did you watch, when I defeated Thenia and Temi to claim the throne of Phaethon?” He asked with a tilt of his heading and a knowing smirk of his own. With Inna, he needed to hold nothing back, and he savored every moment of that. “I think you’ll like them, Inna. They said the same thing. They, just like you, were wrong.”
That seemed to get under her skin, or so he wanted to believe. In response to that, she rushed forward and summoned another spear of violet ki into her hands, like the one from before. Unlike the first one, Methus felt the sheer difference in power. This one barely had any life to it at all compared to the last and, yet, he realized that it could tear him apart in seconds if it allowed it to.
Inna knew it, too, and went straight at him as fast as her legs could carry her. In his current state, that made her significantly faster than him. A moment later and the first thing he noticed was the cloud of dust that rushed up behind Inna as she came to a sudden stop right in front of him. The spear of energy hissed through the air, steam rising off it, and the tip just barely missed his bare skin as Inna’s wide arc came up short.
Until she stepped in and, with the full force of both hands, brought the spear down in Methus before he had a chance to escape. Her timing was too perfect, the man too distracted by the first—intentional—miss. He couldn’t get out of range in time before the spear connected with his head, or his shoulder, or his collarbone. In fact, he couldn’t even back up enough for the tip of the spear to hit instead of the shaft.
He tried anyway. With a burst of red, giving his legs as much strength and swiftness as he could, he launched himself backwards. He moved in slow-motion compared to the spear, twisted out of its arc, only for it to connect with his left bicep anyway. He watched, eyes wide, as the energy glowed brighter and brighter the moment it touched him—and then burst.
The explosion sent rocks flying in every direction and a burst of wind that echoed through the wasteland. Methus’ sudden scream got swallowed in the rush as his body found itself consumed in a cloud of black smoke and orange fire. Another kick of his feet against the torn-up, rocky ground set him free of that black, suffocating prison a moment later. Trails of smoke hung off his shoulders, his chest, and his legs as he backed out of it and clung at his suddenly blood-soaked left arm, which fluttered limp through the air as he backed up from Inna.
His bare feet skidded against the rock and dirt below as he got away from the crater created by the blast. Red blood spilled across the ground and drew a line that traced his path through the air, until he suddenly came to a stop. He winced and squeezed at this arm as he stood there for a moment, eyes focused entirely on the presence of Inna’s Battle Power within the obscuring smoke.
“Holding back, Inna?” Methus mocked even as pain unsteadied his voice. “Or are you just getting tired already?”
Slowly, he forced his breathing back under his control and shove the white-hot pain from his mind. He pulled his hand, stained with his own blood, free from his arm and let it hang, weak, against his side. He took a series of slow, deep breaths, before he pulled his power back inside of himself—but not before small orbs of crimson energy bubbled off his bare chest and surrounded him.
“I shouldn’t be surprised, should I?” He shouted back at the cloud. “Getting tired quickly is a habit of yours!”
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Post by Inna on Mar 22, 2019 21:27:56 GMT -6
And as he reached out into dust, searching for that familiar taste of her Battle Power, he found nothing. The thick cloud churned lethargically in the air, no shadows or hidden form alluding to her physical body being there. Though, with how dense the smog was, could Methus really trust his eyes? His taunts -- attempts to gain a reaction from the suddenly missing Inna -- fell on deaf ears, it seemed. No response came and no hints of life could be seen.
Slowly, the dust settled, leaving behind only the crater she once stood in. Not even a footprint to confirm she had existed in the first place.
The distant chirping and chattering of small critters were all that could be heard. Not even a pebble falling out of place to hint at her slipping up in her attempts to hide.
In reality, she stood with her back pressed against a girthy spire not too terribly far from where she had been just moments ago. There had really only been a small, small window of opportunity for her to escape, leaving only so many options available. There was one other spire between her and Methus, but she was otherwise right in front of him.
Unable to sense Battle Power like he was, she could only rely on her physical senses. Her ears strained for every sound, focusing as much as she could on his movements as she waited for the perfect time to strike. A time, ideally, right after his back was to her. All she needed was one, solid hit dead on his chest -- or maybe to the head -- and she would finally win a spar with him. Though, with how bloodied and bruised he looked, could one even call this a spar anymore?
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Mar 23, 2019 20:26:04 GMT -6
She ran from him.
Methus’ eyesight would never be able to see that the way the smoke flowed through the air and slowly thinned out revealed that there was no one hiding in it. He didn’t need that. What he did use to realize that Inna ran away from him was his own ability to feel her Battle Power and skipped out of the smoke, using it as cover to escape. She could be hiding anywhere, behind any of the spires of rock, or in any of the small caves that opened up and served as burrows for the various alien fauna here.
She got away, once again, even if she likely didn’t get far.
The red orbs Methus summoned remained around him. They floated in place, unmoving, while his red eyes scanned the landscape. His listened intently, just like she certainly did, for any way to indicate where she was. He refused to move and give her the information she needed to snipe him with another thunderous hurl of her spear. She, too, likely refused to move so he could not rain down even more death onto her from the sky. Both of them, in his mind, made wise decisions.
Slowly, Methus took another deep breath. He opened one of his hands and, similar to the trick she just displayed, summoned his own spear of energy. He promised not to use his physical spear, just as she had, in order to keep this as minimally deadly as possible. Inna then, right away, created a spear of energy for herself—likely with the smug satisfaction that it was, technically, not a violation of their agreement.
Two could play that game, Methus decided.
The spear took shape, nearly identical to his original, and steamed against his hand when he grasped the shaft of pure, crimson energy. He spun it about, felt how steady it was, and then took another deep breath as he gripped it with his other hand. With both palms wrapped around it, he held it upright, blunt end pointed towards the ground, and closed his eyes.
He forced his energy up higher and higher. The red orbs around him grew brighter and larger both. Wind slowly started to flow away from him as he focused and concentrated his energy.
If he couldn’t feel her, or see her, or hear her, fine. Methus could play that game, too.
He would just hit everything.
With a sudden roar, Methus jammed the butt end of his spear of energy into the rocky, dirt-covered ground. The orbs around him flared in brightness as well before, all at once, a single, massive explosion erupted from around Methus. With him in the center, where it remained calm, the explosion rushed over the landscape, smashing through the towers of rock, leveling them, and collapsing every cave, all for hundreds of meters. A black cloud of smoke and fire rushed over the ground with it, consuming everything in its wake, while strings and filaments of crimson energy weaved through the devastation, a signature from the man who flattened it all.
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Post by Inna on Mar 24, 2019 9:46:16 GMT -6
The silence was deafening. The tension between them thick. They had been there, done that a couple times since their spar started, as it was a cute way to help test each other's ability to predict one another and pushed the limits of their awareness (though the latter was mostly for Methus). But now, with the spar nearing the climax and with both parties starting to feel a bit of sweat touch their brows, it was probably more annoying than anything to the cocky Phaethonian.
An assumption, Inna soon realized, that was probably more true than not.
The landscape erupted with a red, violent burst of energy. The closer rocks were simply erased from existence while the further ones exploded and shot away from the eye of the storm. Rocks sharpened from the blast cut and pounded into Inna's back as she braced herself. With her back still to him, her front was mostly left unharmed, but that didn't stop the searing pain of his crimson energy from lashing out against her shoulder blades and thighs. From the initial shock, she stumbled forward a couple steps, but ultimately found her balance and stood strong against it.
By the time the explosion ended, she was already turning to face Methus. She wasn't terribly far from him, as expected, and with their sparring field now completely leveled, there was nothing between him. With a little luck, she was properly facing him before he caught sight of the nasty red burns along her back.
Her robes were torn and frayed. They hung onto her shoulders loosely and suggested that most (if not all) of the back portion had been burnt away. Despite that, she put one hand on her hip and cocked her head to the side in an unimpressed manner. Her other hand took a second to push some of her hair over her shoulder and though the sensation of her thick locks of hair brushing over the fresh wound stung, she didn't react.
"Is that it?" Inna called out to him. She turned her nonchalant stare to the left then to the right, as if to look down upon his work, and then she scoffed at him. "What was it you were saying about getting tired?"
Yet again, another spear took shape in her open hand. This time it burned angrily, lashing out at the air around it like an untamed beast ready to snap at anything that got too close. Though the shape was long and pointed at the end, the rest of the features shifted around too much to hold any specific shape or give it anymore dimension. Casually, she spun it in her hand once before snapping into a strong, defensive stance.
"Don't tell me I need to start going easy on you!"
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Mar 24, 2019 11:42:04 GMT -6
This was a mistake, Methus realized as he stared through the thinning cloud of dust and towards the silhouette of Inna. She seemed entirely unfazed by the blast. He realized it was an act, naturally, but the fact that he couldn’t do any serious damage to her in his current state only further reinforced how she outclassed him currently. It made him seriously reconsider his previous handicap of not tapping into his full power. If he continued to hold back, he doubted he would be able to come out on top in this little contest. If he cheated, it would give Inna the satisfaction of knowing that despite all of his experience, he couldn’t overcome the raw power gap.
Not an easy choice, even for him.
“Please,” he scoffed at her and shook his head. “I can do this all day, Inna! Can you say the same?”
He had no choice.
With his red spear still in his right hand, he held it out to the side. He spread his legs and dipped into a slightly lower stance, ready to handle anything else she threw at him. He reeled back his arm, spear pointed forward and ready to be hurled across the wasteland, through the cloud of smoke, and right at Inna. It continued to thin out, too, and slowly revealed more and more of her—clothes tattered, sweat on her brow, hair clearly singed from the repeated explosions. Injured, but far from being defeated outright.
Red flared back to life around him and started to shake the ground once again. Pebbles and small rocks trembled against the ground before they started to rise into the air around Methus. More and more lifted up around him as the red light around his body pulsed and burst outwards, growing in strength and intensity with each passing second. The pupils of his red eyes contracted into pinpricks as he focused on Inna down range, angled his spear just right, and let out one last sigh.
Methus leapt forward a moment later, slammed his left foot back into the dirt and rock beneath, and reeled his right arm back even further. Just as he felt his weight shift fully onto the opposite foot, he twisted his entire body forward and pitched the spear with every bit of strength he could muster. He watched it whistle through the air, watched it tear up rocks and soil alike in its wake, and watched as it raced straight for Inna’s gut.
Until, at the very last moment, it curved upwards. Instead of impaling the woman, it raised above her, soared to the same height as he head, and abruptly detonated in a wave of crimson energy and orange fire that threatened to consume her entire body. The flames surrounded her while tendrils of crimson energy lanced out and tore jagged pathways through the stone that surrounded her, turning the otherwise flat ground into a craggy mess of jagged boulders, rocks, and pebbles.
Before anything else could happen, Methus opened his hand once again and summoned yet another red lance into it. Once again, steam rose from the sheer heat of the weapon as he gripped it with his bare hands and dripped into a low stance. Both hands remained on the shaft of the weapon this time, held forward and at the ready for anything Inna might throw back his way.
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Post by Inna on Mar 24, 2019 12:36:23 GMT -6
Red enveloped the area once more, blurring the line between the brick-red horizon and the ground in one, brilliant blast. Just seconds before Inna had been standing near the center of where his spear had erupted, her own held up in an attempt to block the sudden change in attack. Truth be told, she had braced herself in anticipation of clashing her spear against his own and, in a truly magnificent display of power, she wanted to rip right through it and attack him. It would have been an amazing power move, but alas he stuck to the explosions.
A wise move on his part.
A torrent of burning winds whipped across the smooth, desert plains they stood on. Rocks were buffeted away once more, and a small yelp was most concealed by the boom of the blast. But before anything could settle -- before the explosion had really even finished -- a streak of white and purple burst from the center of the storm and shot straight towards Methus. With her body curled close to the makeshift spear, Inna had kicked from the ground with enough force to tear up the surface and leave behind a small crater. With her body low to the ground, the sheer force of her energy carved an ugly line through the dry ground as she approached.
Her face was red, burnt in a few places like she had been basking in the sun for far, far too long. Along her left cheek was a long, somewhat deep gash that was surely the byproduct of another stray rock catching her at just the right angle. Similar, but smaller lines of blood crossed over her arms. On their own, none of them looked too bad, but they were certainly adding up. The low glare and the way her eyes seemed to almost glow with vengeful fury only proved just how much she was starting to hurt from all of this.
When she was no more than a meter away, her feet dug into the ground once more. With another lunge, this one just as powerful as the first, she lined her spear straight for his chest. After he had tried to blow her up twice in a row, she no longer felt like she was fighting unfairly with a few jabs to his vital organs. He could regenerate a heart, right?
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Mar 24, 2019 13:33:26 GMT -6
Too slow.
Inna’s violent lance shrieked through the air, leaving a trail of steam behind it. In mere moments after her throw, in the space of a single blink, it reached Methus before he could even move his own spear to intercept. The bladed tip of the weapon split open his chest, stabbed through muscle and bone alike, and then burst from his back in an eruption of blood and flesh and marrow. Methus screamed as it carried him backwards towards one of the cliffside walls that rose from the wasteland around him. The energy weapon buried itself in the wall and flattened a screaming Methus against the rock.
In seconds, blood poured from Methus mouth as he choked and coughed and hacked. It ran down his chin, coated it thickly, and did the same to his neck and his bare chest. It continued to slid down, dripping onto his abdominals and the dirt below him as his feet dangled, pinned against the cliff, a full meter above the dirt. His breathing staggered and caught on his writhed against the rocks and desperately tried to get a decent breath in.
His left hand snapped to the weapon and felt the burn against his skin. He twisted, as hard as he possibly could, until the back end of the energy lance snapped off and immediately evaporated in a shower of purple particles. Then, Methus braced that same, left hand against the cliffside against his back and pushed. With a great scream, and heave, the and the squirting of even more blood, he shoved himself free of the remaining weapon and collapsed—his own, red energy spear in hand—against the dirt.
Another cough followed as his cheek flattened against the dirt and puffed a small dust cloud into the air in front of his eyes. Blood poured forth from his wound like an endless river. With a grunt and a groan, Methus lifted himself with his free, burnt hand and watched as even more blood spilled from the gaping hole in his chest.
A dim, white glow appeared around his body, like a film that clung to his skin. Slowly, Methus stood back up, and the skin around the stab wound started to wriggle and writhe. By the time he got to full height, both the entry and exit wounds started to pull themselves together. Inside, the flesh and bone alike began to regrow, forming muscle and organ once again. In mere seconds, as steam poured out of the hole instead of blood, the wound closed up entirely and left immaculate skin in its place.
Then, with a gasp, Methus stumbled forward and stabbed his spear into the dirt to catch himself. He gasped and heaved over the dirt and watched as droplets of sweat fell onto the stained dirt beneath him and mixed with the shallow puddle of crimson.
Slowly, agonizingly, he lifted his head to look at Inna, his dark blue hair now matted with sweat. He glared at her and, for yet another moment, considered surrender. They had already pushed themselves significantly further than either expected with this little exercise. They could call it here and allow what they already accomplished speak for itself. No doubt, they would both come out stronger for this.
They could do that.
“Got another one…” he started to answer her, his breathing labored. “…in you? Or was that the last of it?”
In yet another act of defiance to her superior raw power, that tell-tale glow of crimson returned to his body. It burst into life and lifted even more rocks and pebbles alike in the air around him. He bent at the knees, winced at the tenderness in his chest, and dipped into yet another low, spear-ready stance.
Without another word, he launched himself forward. Red light trailed behind him and dust followed his feet as he raced straight across the mostly-flat ground they fought over, aimed straight for Inna, and drew his energy spear back with both hands.
His foot stomped down just in front of Inna, the slipstream that followed him rushed over her body, and Methus thrust his spear forward, with both hands, with every ounce of his meager strength that remained.
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