The Twelve

[Molokidan]

"I'm not dropping this guy 'till you're outta my sight." Bruce retorted. "If you aren't concerned with him at all, why do you keep asking about him? If you don't care, you would be gone by now. There's obviously something keeping you here. Seeing as how you look like a puny little weakling, I've deduced that you're planning to charge some magic trick on me. You're underestimating me because of the very fact that you haven't gone running already." Bruce continued to reply to Zachary. "I don't really care whether you think it's an assumption."

The flames continued to glow brightly on his legs, while the fire around the hallway began to die down, as the vines began to decompose. Christopher was on the ground, breathing heavily, while Ari was attending to him. Zander was unconscious.

"About the fire. . ." he said. "If you think I'm going to just reveal my entire power to you, you're dumber than you take me for. For all you know, this could be hurting me right now." he smirked, staring at Zachary, waiting for a response. It seemed he was enjoying this. Meanwhile, Kamome was at the end of his rope. Much longer, and he would surely die of asphyxiation.

****

Averyl and Theodarus began moving slowly towards each other. Theodarus's pen resonated a small bit, but not nearly enough to do anything spectacular. If he had had a longer time between his recent attack and charging the pen, he could have gotten more energy. But charging so soon after doing such a complicated attack, it was useless. He'd be lucky if he could get anything out of this.

Meanwhile, they came face to face. More blades began to slide out from Averyl's cloak, from his shoulder, his elbow, his chest, heading straight for Theodarus.

Suddenly, there was a flash of colorful robes. Negi had regained his sight, and with his four sabres, parried Averyl's multipled attacks, moving him backwards, and pulling the long blade out of Theodarus's shoulder.

Averyl growled. "Get out of my way." he said. "I WANT THAT ONE!"

"Over 80 soldiers killed in the first round. . .multiple stab wounds on each body in random places. . .it was you, wasn't it?" Negi held his sabres to Averyl, each of them bent at ridiculous angles trying to keep the blades away from him.

"I told them not to attack me." Averyl said, staring at Negi. "They wouldn't listen."

"You're one fucked-up person." Negi said, pressing harder.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Averyl shouted, another dozen of blades coming out of his cloak, and slashing into Negi. He had to have at least ten wounds across his upper half alone. Meanwhile, from Averyl's legs, tons more blades came out, sticking themselves through Negi's robes.

"Shit. . ." Negi muttered. In this struggle, the man with four arms seemed to be shorthanded. "Theodarus." he said. "Run. As you can see, I will not tell you again."

[JoshuaDurron]

"Let's have a look down another passageway before we leave-kupo." The moogle had removed his ear pads once it was apparent that Riley wouldn't be playing any more music, at least in the near future, thus hear was not so much of a problem. He set off quickly for the next nearest non-flaming passage.

[Molokidan]

"Alright." Riley and Rall said, following Fwupo, as they turned and ran the other way, to the next closest passageway, #5.

It was for the most part empty, except for a man in black who had a bunch of blades either shoved into him or sticking out of him, and a man with four blades who was currently being stabbed by them.

Behind him was. . .

"Hey. . ." Fwupo said. "Is that Theodarus?"

(OOC: Gotta wait for Theo to post next.)

[wkz]

"Dammit, I would run if I could, but this blade is stuck or something" Theodarus said, following which he tried to push away once more.

This time the pain was too much for him, and he screamed. Still, he continued to struggle against the blade. It seems panic had finally taken over....

[Molokidan]

Theodarus fell to the ground, the rest of the blade sliding out of his body, spraying blood onto the ground. He fell backwards, as Negi continued to become impaled.

"I'm not moving." Negi growled, staring at the man in the black cloak, who looked extremely pissed.

Theodarus stood up, regaining his composure, and could see Fwupo and two other men down at the other end of the hall, gawking in surprise.

[The Great Nevareh]

"What's stopping you, really? The more people you kill, the fewer opponents you might end up having. I don't see the logic in your threats."

But things were not as they seemed. Having already decided that he can't save Kamome and defeat Bruce at the same time, he has opted to defeat Bruce (logically, it's the better thing to do.) Focusing all of his ability, he, at the end of that statement, threw as much magical energy as he could into a 100g's effect that takes place not in the air or on the ground, but in the center of Bruce's chest, attempting to amplify things as much as he can in the general area of the assasin's more vital organs. With as much strength as he can, he goes straight for a killing (or permanently incapacitating) blow that would ruin the assassin's heart- even a couple of seconds of no blood would be enough to cause disabling brain damage.
Plus, Kamome might survive.

(Edit: Thaums is a unit of measurement, like inches, and has to do with the amount of energy being dumped into a magical effect, and very little to do with the effect itself.)

Edited by: The Great Nevareh at: 11/11/04 11:15 pm

[The Great Nevareh]

"How do you know I'm underestimating anything? For a man who values his own intelligence, you certainly seem a mite too certain about the universe. And I might be waiting for the man to die of asphyxiation so I can use his corpse as a weapon. Besides, you just told me that all I have to do is stand here until you starve to death. There's a time limit, so waiting isn't good for either of us. If I can't save him, I can't save him. Though this entire discourse is going nowhere other than allowing us to snipe at eachother in never-before-thought ways. "
If Kamome dies, then I'm going to see if that man's heart can take seven or eight times downward gravity. Or maybe six times upward gravity, to give him a stroke. I can't save Kamome without putting myself in terrible danger or causing anything constructive to happen. Who knew that I would have to make such decisions? But time ticks on... And if I am going to act, I might as well act now.
Zachary stifles a yawn, then steels himself for his move. He can't rely on a burst to disorient or defeat the assassin, so Zachary has to rely on something that hurts him more directly. So he focuses his thoughts on the floor and applies his calculations.
1200 thaums might be overkill, but I can't risk otherwise.
"We're at an impasse, aren't we."

[Molokidan]

(OOC: Can Zachary do such a thing, Nev? I'm looking at his sheet, and all I see related to gravity is 100G's, which only lasts for a few seconds. I let a few things slide because of the circumstances, but really, where is Zachary pulling this stuff from?)

"I'm getting bored of this." Bruce growled. He opened his fist a bit, allowing Kamome to gasp for precious air, before clamping it tight again. "Move on, or I'm going to get serious with you." he said to Zachary.

Meanwhile, Ari walked back up to Zachary, holding Christopher in his arms, and set him down next to Zander. He stared at Bruce and Zachary, watching for any signs of fault between them. This could very well be the end of the tournament for all of them, if things didn't go well.

[The Great Nevareh]

"Honestly- Should I care what you think? And stop insulting both my and your own intelligence with the diatribe. Now, if this were a black hole, we'd be dead. Hell, maybe we ARE dead. I don't know what happened, though. Most likely a thaumatic fluctuation of the enigma principle combined with a critical outflow along the crisis lines placed us in an alternate and/or pocket dimension. I clearly used too much power. "

Edited by: The Great Nevareh at: 11/12/04 1:37 am

[Molokidan]

Zachary concentrated all his power into one attack, and let it rip from his hands, aiming straight at Bruce's heart.

It lept from him, but suddenly, things took a turn for the worse. As soon as Zachary had concentrated all his energy into the single attack, and let it loose, a large black rift opened up in the center of the hallway.

Kamome's eyes bulged out even more than they were before, and suddenly, the entire hallway began to distort.

"What the fu-" Bruce could not finish his sentence, before Zachary, Kamome, and Bruce were all sucked into the black hole before it dissapeared in the hallway.

". . ." Ari turned to face his open pathway, and began moving down towards the stairway upwards.

****

"What the hell. . ." Bruce looked around. "Just what the hell kind of powers do you have, kid?"

Zachary picked himself up and looked around. He caught his breath, pulling himself to his knees. He felt woozy, as if all his adrenaline had been sucked out of him with a hose. They had been sucked into a strange dark place, which had small bits of flourescent light pouring through strange holes around the entire area. It was as if they were in some strange dome. There was no distinguishing between the floors, walls, or ceiling. It was all black, all around them. Light poked through every direction, even in the middle of space before where Zachary was "standing."

"I didn't know you had this kind of power." Kamome was standing up, still rubbing his red, bruised neck. "So, you can control gravity. . .but how in the world did you concentrate so much?" he stared around. "Your gravity well must have created a localized black hole, which has in turn caused a rift in reality. I have no idea where we are. . .I wonder how long this place will stay in tact."

"What the hell are you two talkin' about. . ." Bruce said. "That's impossible. There's no way that dumbass could have done such a thing."

"It IS possible." Kamome glared at Bruce, remembering the threat, and arming himself with his bow and arrow. "I've never nce come across a person who could control gravity at their will. You shouldn't have either. No one knows anything on the subject. . .this is quite a creation."

Bruce stared at Zachary, flames erupting around himself, exploring this new area. "Well, you've really fucked up this time, kid."

[Molokidan]

"It's not a black hole as we know it." Kamome said, holding up his finger. It is a rip in time. Your energy caused a rupture in the original time-space coordinates that we stood, and accidentally relocated us in those of another dimension. . .a dimension that shouldn't be."

Kamome turned to Bruce. "I really suggest you refrain from killing either of us. We could be the ones who get you out of here in the end. Let's all just put our heads together and think of a way out." he turned to Zachary. "What exactly did you intend to do, earlier?"

Bruce sat cross-legged on the floor, looking pissed. "Can't kill people. ..can't even walk around. .."

[The Great Nevareh]

"Give our friend over there a heart attack or a stroke, whichever came first. Maybe I would have accidentally liquefied his organs. Essentially, I placed a pile of gravitic pressure on the surface of his chest. Do you have a good enough understanding of Thaumaturgical Physics and Quadratic Expositional Chaos for me to get technical?"

[Molokidan]

Kamome cocked an eye at Zachary. ". . .I can't say I'm well-versed in the area. However, I do know a lot about human's energy, as well as dimensional abilities, which your gravity spells fall under. I'm assuming that something like this never happened to you before, right? Otherwise you wouldn't have done it now. . .in any case, throw whatever you want at me. While I'm not a genius in the area, I do it make it a point to specialize over a wide range of fields. Maybe together we can figure some way out of here." Kamome stared at Zachary, not reprimanding him, but respecting him, and honestly trying to seek his help out. He acknowledged the large amount of power inside the runic knight. . .and hoped that there was some left to get them all out alive.

[FF Fanatic 80]

Even in this highly dangerous situation, Adarl couldn't help but laugh to himself at the man's absurd question.

Do I seek to take his badge... is he foolish enough to have to ask that? the half-drow wonders. Something about the man's questions seemed unusual to him, as he replays the gunman's question in his mind.

And as he thinks about it, it occurs to him the man seems to be acting in self-defense. Otherwise, he would have simply asked for all of Adarl's badges right then. The man was trying to determine how much of a threat he posed. Something the half-drow hoped he could take advantage of.

...if he truly fears that I am a threat, I must keep him defensive. Otherwise, he will have the upper hand and I will surely lose my own badge. At least this way, there is the chance his nerves will get to him... Adarl thinks. To test the waters, he turns himself in place slightly to the right, hoping he can catch a glimpse of the gunman out of the corner of his eye.

"You should be more concerned about yourself." Adarl begins to speak, "For you have made a very dangerous adversary right now. I do not intend to lose my badges to continue on in this tournament. And I assure you, you will regret trying to take them from me."

Now the half-drow waited, to see if his bluff would be called, or believed... or worse.

[JoshuaDurron]

Fwupo quickly hauled off his headband and ran forward, seeking to sneak up on the pointy black man. As he got closer, he set himself to leap up on his shoulders, aiming to strangle the man with his headband. He didn't like Theo the wordsmith much, but having him in his debt might be useful...

[Molokidan]

Adarl got a good glimpse of the man he was speaking to. He was a short man, wearing tough armor, and had a round, swarthy face with rosy cheeks. A long, thick beard covered the lower half of his face.

The interesting thing about him, however, was the "gun" he was carrying. He was holding the opening out towards Adarl, but what it actually was, was a pink-and-purple spotted tube, that seemed to wrap around his body a few times and then dissapeared behind him. Adarl could only guess that it went into his back somehow. Whatever the thing was, it looked mighty gross, as if it was a huge dragon intestine or something of the like. And it was pointed right at the drow.

"Oh. . .good." he said. "So you don't want any more badges, right? I already got all mine too. I'm just lost trying to get to the third floor. So, anyway. . .you just keep walking that way. . .and I won't bother you again. Sound like a deal?" He was apparently trying to make some sort proposition.

****

Fwupo dashed down the hallway with the speed only a moogle possesses, and wrapped his headband around Averyl, pulling him backwards onto the ground. The blades slid out of Negi, causing the man to fall to the ground, a bloody mess.

Averyl growled and first tried to pull himself free, but Fwupo's hold on him was too tight. That's when the blades came out, two from Averyl's shoulder, which stuck themselves into Fwupo's thighs. More came out, inching their way towards the moogle. Averyl grabbed at the bandanna, ripping it from his neck. He said nothing, but stared at the moogle, preparing to skewer him on the spot.

(OOC: Theo's turn.)

[The Great Nevareh]

"Well, to work my magic, I apply Crisis Theory to the ley lines of an area, manipulating the spacial distortion caused by mass. Since I'm using the energy-saving practices behind Crisis Theory, it enables me to manipulate in a more potent manner. If given a few days, I could puzzle us out of this with 100% certainty, though we don't really have a few days, do we? It isn't the prospect of UNdoing what I did- that won't work since this is self-sustaining, apparently. I'm guessing I need to REdo what I did, using a different set of principles to destabilize this pocket dimension and maybe let us out. Though I did use quite a bit of energy to do this. 1.2 Kilothaums. I'm not sure I can do that again without some rest. Unless there's a way I can draw upon the circuit of energy that's enabling this pocket dimension to exist in the first place, which I sincerely doubt. Of course, there is the entire chance that this is a Grobmen Kaloric effect, which I could only know if I were on the outside to see what's happening out there- And if this IS a Grobmen Kaloric effect, all we really need to do is dispel a part of the wall to cause the entire thing to collapse while leaving us perfectly intact. Of course, that implies we could ever reach the wall. It also implies that I didn't accidentally destroy the universe. Also, the entire point of the Crisis Manipulation theory is that using the Heyuul concept and the Rhadaman equation to create an inverse edge of Crisis can cause a theoretical infinite energy draw- Therefore the barrier of this pocket sphere might be perfectly unbreakable because it could exist on the edge of Crisis that I used to invoke the effect in the first place- though that is terribly unlikely as the effect was not meant to be self-sustaining, and it is very difficult to accidentally cause a self-renewing Crisis effect. So, we're left with the Kayfdahz effect, which probably won't help us much anyway. Also, since 'space' as we know it doesn't appear to exist here, we might have some problems with basic Kayfdahz situations, let alone generating a movement that would cause the Kayfdahz effect to occur. Then again, we could..."
Zachary doesn't look like he's going to stop anytime soon.

[Molokidan]

"Okay, okay. . ." Kamome said, holding his hand up to stop Zachary. "You've lost me. Anyway. . .from what you've said so far. . .I think I have an idea."

He stepped forward, gave Bruce, who had been staring blankly into space, a quick look, and then turned back to Zachary.

"Alright. . ." he said. "You're going to have to trust me a lot for this one." Kamome looked a little bit nervous. "I'm going to knock you out. I will do it painfully, just tap you in the right spot on the back of your neck. I think that this pocket dimension is being sustained by your own power. . .so if you're put out, it will cease to exist."

Kamome stared at Zachary, and then continued.

"However. . .this could lead to one of two possible endings. One, the pocket dimension is destroyed, and we all die. Two. . .the pocket dimension is displaced, and we are returned to our original setting." he stared at Zachary. "Do you follow me?"

Bruce eyed Kamome oddly. "So you're saying all we gotta did is kill that punk to get outta here?"

"Shut up." Kamome eyed Bruce coldly. "Kill us both and you will surely die."

Bruce frowned at Kamome. "You think you run this show, bub?" he said, standing up.

Kamome stared at Zachary. "As you can see, we do not have much time. Please make up your mind quickly."

[The Great Nevareh]

"Can't hurt anything. Though I would prefer to be conscious when and if the wall drops. Pardon me if I fail to trust Bruce, there. Tap away... if you can ever reach me. Don't know if space works right."

[Molokidan]

"Alright." Kamome said. "I'll try not to punch you too hard."

Kamome moved behind Zachary. Like Zachary said, at first, he was displaced a bit, but eventually made his way to the back of the gravity user. "This shouldn't hurt."

As he said, Zachary was immediately on the ground, a feeling of "going under" taking him over.

Suddenly, there was a flash of white light, and the three reappared in the hallway. Zachary could barely make out what was going on. . .it seemed as if his whole body had gone numb.

Bruce stared around at the charred hallway. "Hey." he said. "You were actually right." he smiled back at the two. "Now I can kill ya both and get this over with."

Kamome said nothing, scooping Zachary up under one arm, and bolting out of the empty passageway. He turned left at the corner, going down to the stairwell.

Bruce stampeded after them. "GET BACK HERE!!"

Kamome jumped up the stairway, leaping like a stallion, turning the corner and staring in shock at the barrier that was in place to the third floor.

"D. . .damn. . ." he said, quickly regaining his pace and dashing down the hallway into the health area. He dived into the hot springs door, the only one the archer could remember, and moved into the locker area, setting Zachary down and tapping on his shoulders twice.

The runic knight got control of his body back.

"This could be a problem." he said. "Bruce is slow, but he will eventually make his way up here. Although I don't know how long it will take. . ."

He pursed his lips. "What I'm more worried about, however, is the fact that there is some sort of magical shield in front of the stairwell to the third floor. There's either one of two reasons for this. 1) This was put in by the committee to raise the difficulty level of this certain event, or 2) It was put in by a contestant, which very well may have shut us off from the exit. We need to find another route up there. Do you have five points yet?" he asked Zachary.

[The Great Nevareh]

"I don't even have one point. I gave Chris my badge in case something happened to me. I guess I better get crackwhaoo the room is spinning."

[Molokidan]

Zachary stared around the room dizzily, catching his breath. He was indeed tired from his recent attack, and getting knocked by some strange paralysis move on the back of his head surely didn't help. If only he could get a few minutes of rest. . .

"This isn't good." Kamome said, looking around the steamy room. He tapped his boots twice on the ground, and the glowing effect that had been there as he was running dissipated. "Even when I looked back there, Christopher, Zander, and Ari were gone. I can only assume that they relocated themselves. . .but Ari doesn't seem like the one to naturally try and help people."

Kamome paced compusively, trying to figure things out. "This is quite a jam. . .quite a jam indeed."

Suddenly, a whip smacked next to Kamome's feet. The man jumped backwards, staring at their assailant, who was just barely visible through the steam, and stepping out of the hot spring.

It was a man with short purple hair, who was wearing a tight black leather outfit, with gold trimmings. He was holding a thick black whip, the end of it curled around his fist. "I take it you two have decided to become my next victims. . ." he smiled. "Good. The water isn't thick enough with blood yet."

Kamome turned quickly to Zachary. "Are you okay to fight? Or should I be prepared to handle this guy by myself?"

[The Great Nevareh]

"Zqmgfph."

Zachary rubs his face and tries to figure out how much more gravitic manipulation he can handle.

[Molokidan]

". . ." Kamome turned back to stare at the whip man. "You're after our badges, are you not?"

"You are correct~." the man said, in a singsongy voice. "I'm after youuuu~." he grinned.

"Fine." Kamome said, pulling out his bow and arrow. "Let's get this over with then." He tapped his feet on the ground twice, almost subliminally, and suddenly began zooming towards the target.

"!?" the man looked forward, surprised, and shot out with his whip. It was too slow, however, and Kamome easily dodged it simply by moving forward. He got into the man's close vicinity, and rather than shooting the arrow, simply plucked it from the bow and stuck it into the man's heart, before he could retract his heavy whip in time.

"Aggh..." the man fell backwards into the hot springs, allowing Kamome's arrow to smoothly come out of his heart with a bloody slurp.

Kamome tapped his boots on the floor again, and moved back to Zachary, this time at a normal pace. "No offense." he said. "But in the time it would take to get your answer, I would have already killed him." he said, moving over to the corner of the room, and beginning to clean his arrow. "Feel free to take his badge if you want. I don't need it."

[FF Fanatic 80]

So he is somewhat nervous... hmmm.... Adarl thinks, ...Though his... 'weapon'... is rather unorthodox. Still, I need to maintain a confident air, make him begin to doubt himself. And hope this will not backfire badly....

The half-drow smirks, turning to fully face the man.

"You seem rather confident I will not harm you, despite knowing nothing of me, or my abilities. After all, to survive up to this point, I must have some skill. How can you be so sure you're a match for me? Or what my motives are?"

Adarl waits for now to hear a response from the man, watching his reaction carefully.

[Molokidan]

". . .hey, don't move!!" the man said, shoving the tube-like weapon forward. "You think I'm weak, don't you?!" he shouted. "Yeah. . .the other two guys thought I was weak too. . ." he sighed.

"Alright." he aimed the tube at Adarl. "I tried to reason with you, but you think you're some big-shot swordsman, don't you, Mr. Big-shot swordsman? Yeah....I know your type. Think you're sooo cool, walking around with your big swords. Don't worry. I know the score. But you didn't think about Markus Rivell, now did you? Yep. . ."

He aimed the tube at Adarl's head. . .it seemed as if he was about to shoot something.

[FF Fanatic 80]

well... this appears to have blown up in my face rather well... Adarl thought. He looked about quickly, trying to find anything he could dive behind or run to for cover. He had a feeling whatever this strange contraption shot, he did not want to be on the receiving end of.

[Molokidan]

The man shot the gun, but Adarl was surprised at how slowly the "bullet" came out.

Meanwhile, the drow was busy diving into an italian restaurant, jumping and rolling behind the cash register and peering out.

What came out of the tube was a strange cream-colored substance. It dripped onto the floor, rather disgustingly, and then started to group itself together.

What resulted was a strange bug-like thing, with large pincers, six legs, and a long tail. It was all cream-colored, with darkers spots towards its head. Its eyes were black.

It oozed towards the store, slowly enough, but as it did so. . the pathway behind it burned and seethed, as if it was being corroded.

It climbed onto the cash register, which immediately began to steam and break down. . .

[The Great Nevareh]

"Mfglmp."

Zachary rubs his eyes a bit, then looks around.

[Molokidan]

Kamome eyed Zachary oddly. "Are you alright?"

[The Great Nevareh]

"Mptlg... *plop*"
Zachary rolls off of the bench, then tries to lever himself up off of the ground. Without much success. He doesn't feel anything below his waist, but that's better than a minute ago when he didnt feel anything below his neck. Though that whole "Move my legs" thing isn't going for him right now.
"Mue ull muh?"

[Molokidan]

(OOC: WHERE IS FWUPO AND THEODARUS?!?! Come on guys! We're more than halfway done by now! *gives everyone a pep up* We can make it to the end!)

"I'm going to take it you're in pain. . ." Kamome said. "Well, maybe you should stay here and rest, then." he said, turning to the door. "I'll be back in a little bit to check on you."

And with that, Kamome opened the door to leave Zachary alone.

[The Great Nevareh]

"Mrglp."
Zachary yawns and begins to edge his way over to the corpse.

[Molokidan]

Zachary crawled over to the corpse, and began searching it, to find the man had not only his own badge on him, but one other, apparently from a previously killed foe. The whip would do Zachary no good, and other than that, the man had no other interesting items on himself.

Well, that was two down. And if he didn't see Christopher again, only three more to go.

There were now two places to go. He could either follow Kamome out of the room, continue to explore the spa, or just sit around and recover from the earlier skirmish. Either way, he was lucky.

[Molokidan]

Theodarus grabbed Negi, and began high-tailing it down the hallway. Due to the insane amount of concentration, plus the stab wounds in his shoulders, he only made it a few steps before falling to the ground, gritting his teeth and cursing his lack of stamina.

"Leave me. . ." Negi muttered. Theodarus looked at his companion. He was getting better, slowly but surely. Theodarus's pens were now completely out of energy, and he was too. He was in a tight spot, no doubt about it.

Riley looked to Fwupo. "This guy looks pretty dangerous, eh?" he said. "You wanna go help your friend?"

Meanwhile, Rall was already over by Theodarus. "Hey. . ." he said. "Let me take you guys outta here." he hefted Theodarus onto his shoulder, Negi onto another. "Are you alright?"

Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=molokidan>Molokidan</A]&nbsp; at: 11/15/04 10:00 pm

[wkz]

(OCC: Very Opps.. sorry...
But then again, I DID say I might not be online a lot this weekend, and you dumped the turn right on my head... Fwupo is just waiting for me to "move")

The haze faded, only slightly, but at least Theodarus got back from his 'bout of panic attack. Almost seemly dazed, he looked around, breathing heavily, trying to find out where he is.

It seems he had ran a bit from where he was impaled, or Averyl had moved back quite a lot, which does not seem likely, as Negi was a mess right at his feet. Blades of some kind were still sticking out of his body at various angles, all over the body... and something seemed to be impaled onto it....

"Oh dammit..." Theodarus thought as he saw Fwupo try to inch away on injured legs. He had seen the moogle fight, and if anything, injuries to the legs are going to be fatal to the fighting style of the little guy.

"Time to act... or we all die. Move DAMMIT, MoVE!!" Theodarus continued thinking, willing his injured body onwards. He took out a pen, charged it while Averyl's attention is taken, and not caring if the charge was enough or if it will hold, wrote the only word he could think of that was not a direct physical attack:

"Freeze".

(Theodarus attempts to use a Word 'o Power. Details: "Godammable Freeze into a Bloody **%#^$** ICICLE!!". He did that instead of any other idea because he gets the distinct impression the blades will only appear if Averyl gets physically attacked)

[Molokidan]

(OOC: Sir Theo, thank you. Yeah, I realized you were busy, I'm sorry. It was just bad timing on my part.)

Averyl blinked, and was suddenly covered in ice, frozen in place. The blades dissapeared, and Averyl was frozen in there, staring at Theo from outside.

Negi shivered on the floor, obviously having some severe problems regarding blood loss. "Get the hell out of here!!" he still managed to shout throughout the pain. "I told you to run. . .something like that's not going to hold him for long. . .especially at your weakened state. . ."

Meanwhile, Fwupo's cohorts, Riley and Rall, made their way to the mess. "Fwupo!!" they shouted, picking the moogle up. "What happened?"

Fwupo had two large gashes in his thighs, but was otherwise unharmed. They were open now that the blades had dissapeared, and were bleeding profusely.

"Negi. . ." Rall said, looking down at his friend. "Shit. . .what the hell is this guy?"

They started at the man frozen inside the icicle, which seemed to be shaking, and getting smaller. Theodarus's spell wouldn't last long at all. . .nor would Negi's life.

(OOC: From now, either of you can post.)

[wkz]

"Oh no you don't," Theodarus said, charging his brush again despite his injuries. "When a Banjo promises something, he Promises Something, all bells and whisles attached. I'm not going to be the first Banjo to run away from that..."

With that, he unrapped an arm from the cloth all over Negi, and wrote "Heal" onto it. "Here's to hoping this at least stops the bleeding..." he said to the new arrivals. "Lets start high-tailing it before this freak *pointedly looks at the icicle* wakes up again..."

[FF Fanatic 80]

Adarl found it very difficult to remain calm. Right in front of him was a creature he knew nothing of, and against which he could not use his armed combat skills. Well... unless he wished to melt his sword into a puddle, that is.

This thing appears to be some kind of liquid... maybe if I throw another liquid at it... the half-drow thinks frantically. Considering he was within a restaurant, he hoped he could find something suitable as he looks around.

[Molokidan]

Adarl frantically looked through the cupboards behind him. All the standards were there for italian cooking, such as olive oil, vinegar, white wine, red wine, and some spices. There didn't seem to be anything too dangerous. . .just a lot of acidic liquids.

Meanwhile, the creature climbed to the top of the register, looking down at Adarl. It made no strange signals of anything, but simply sat there, waiting for the register to finish dissolving so it could take a crack at the drow.