Day 2: Monster Arrival

Afternoon: 12:00noon - Evening

[ IRL Timeframe: April 1st - April 14th, 2019 ]

Unfortunately for the heroes, only one of them has an easy time when the monsters arrive. In the history of the wizard fights, it was rare but not unheard of for multiple monsters to arrive. Years 12, 22, and 30 had featured three of a monster but only one was real. Year 9 had featured the tenth monster as ten individuals that all came together into one. And, most strangely, years 4, 13, 26, and 37 had featured a monster that had an active and an inactive body.

This year, the second monster appears in two places.

The first arrives in Craydon, its massive body just a ball of metallic spikes with two bright orange eyes in the middle. It looks like a massive urchin, its body easily close to ten feet across where it's sitting on the train tracks ahead of the train arriving. Its spikes stick out easily another ten feet in every direction, making it a gigantic terrifying ball. The party train's arrival to its 12:25pm destination ends with the conductor locking up the brakes to bring the train to a stop. This sucks!

The second arrives in Bamborough, its massive body easily sixty feet up in the air suspended atop dozens of small, thin metallic spikes for legs. Its two orange eyes scan down at the world below, its spherical body covered in smaller spike nubs on all other sides. The eyes aren't fixed in place, either, and they're scanning the oceanfront as it moves around. It's definitely looking for something and it's visible for miles. Good luck, everyone!

Monster Fight Opportunity: Craydon: Luka, Gyre, Web, Olivia, Joanna.
Monster Fight Opportunity: Bamborough: Haizea, Seth, Garrot, Gail, Zafika, Terrence, Matilda.

The Weather
Windy.
61°F / 16°C
The trees are rustling, leaves flowing through the air.

Prompts:

12:25pm Train Arrival: The party train comes to its final destination in Craydon at 12:25pm. The reason that it's a final destination is due to the monster on the tracks. Oh god, it's right there? Oh god, oh GOD??? When the train comes to a screeching halt, all the non-heroes quickly scamper out of the train to flee for safety. Good luck, heroes!

12:30pm, Ramen, Far Haven: Social Media is abuzz that the Wizard has left the power plant and has gone to one of the chain ramen restaurants in Far Haven. The restaurant is known for its decent ramen, but everyone knows it can't compare to the local shops around the island. This is the "I just want to eat" ramen restaurant. But more importantly, this one has some sports bar qualities and has TVs up on the walls to watch. The Wizard is here, seated close to one of the TVs, and she's watching the events unfolding in Craydon and Bamborough. How is she doing that? Who's recording?

12:30pm, The Bamborough Monster: Out on the waterfront boardwalk, the monster is lumbering its way along the wooden walkways seemingly in search of something. The few shops that were open are closing up as quickly as possible, the last thing they need is their already minimal business ruined by a visit from this monster. Please, someone come help.

??:??pm: Unknown What happens next?

Procedure:

Reply to the appropriate toplevel comments for events below. Indicate if a post is a private conversation with "Private" in the subject otherwise all threads should be open to interaction with others. Plan OOCly how you'd like to toss everyone around.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Haizea reaches through the now glassless window and unlocks the door, then pulls out a switchblade from her boot to use as a screwdriver and removes a panel under the steering column. She pulls out the wires and uses the switchblade to strip the insulation off of a few of them, then twists two of them together. At this point, the radio flips on and starts blaring whatever the equivalent of country music is (she immediately switches it off), so she's finally ready to spark the engine. It takes a few tries, but finally the engine stutters to life and she revs it a few times to keep it going. Yep, she's done it! She's hotwired a car!

"You ready to head to the boardwalk?" She asks, leaning out of the car and grinning sheepishly at Seth. Here's hoping he's cool with this!

Seth kind of just stares as Haizea hotwires the car...and then at the question he just kind of shrugs. He doesn't really feel like reacting to what just happened, quickly going to the other side of the car, tapping the door, like 'pls open this.'

He seemed strangely nonchalant about this.

She leans over to unlock the passenger side for him then throws the bat she'd taken from the gym into the back seat. Maybe it'll come in handy?

Once he gets into the car, she starts speeding off towards the boardwalk. She absolutely knows how to drive, but she never got a proper license. On the way, she glances over to him before speaking.

"So, uh. I'd appreciate if you didn't tell people that I know how to do that."

Seth blinks slightly at the suggestion before nodding...and then motioning to his mouth with an amused twitch of his lips, as if to say 'it'd be kinda hard anyway with being mute'

He's purposefully ignoring the fact he has other methods of communication for the sake of the joke...?

She gets the joke. "Heh, that's true. Thanks for being cool anyway!" She gives him a thumbs up. Keep your hands on the wheel, Haizea!

It's not long before they make it to the boardwalk, Haizea parks the car where it is once they can see the monster. With the way it's towering up there, it's probably visible over the various stalls and shops lining the boardwalk.

"How's this; I'll distract it with my powers while you get your wires around its legs, then brace your wires against somethin' big and pull. Its legs are so spindly that I bet it won't take too much strength to topple it, but you should use some hand protection from the rat to be sure. Are you ready?"

Seth rubbed his arm rather nervously but nodded at Haizea. He should be able to do that, though in the right order for certain, typing out:
"As ready as I can be I guess...I'll ask Qus and go find something sturdy to use as a brace before I start wrapping the wires."

Edited 2019-04-13 00:54 (UTC)

She nods at him confidently. "You can do this, just be careful and lay your wires from a distance. I'll keep it's focus. Stay safe!" She signs S-A-F-E before turning and sprinting toward the monster.

Once she gets close, she darts out from behind a stall, yells "HEY UGLY!" and throws the baseball bat she'd brought from the gym at the monster, then controls the wind to help propel it the full distance up to the closest excuse it has for a face.

[Haizea yells at the monster and throws a bat at it]

Haizea succeeds at exactly one (1) thing: Getting the monster's attention. The bat bounces off of its form harmlessly, as if it were just a leaf floating through the air. But at her calling it ugly? Well, rude.

It turns its eyes down to her, its mass shifting slightly... and then it starts rapidly advancing on Haizea. It works up a surprising amount of speed, spindly legs carrying it forward towards her. It uh... it's not slowing down, either, it fully intends to stampede over her and stab her with its spines. Time to kill a knight!

Yikes. Seth is absolutely scared for Haizea, but does what they planned, running to find something sturdy to brace his wires against, as well as asking Qus for a reinforced glove for hand protection, getting a chain mail glove, and putting it on.

Good luck surviving long enough for Seth to do his thing Haizea!

Ever since getting a handle on her powers, Haizea’s been focusing more on fine control than sheer power, mostly because she’s been doing her best not to hurt anyone surrounding her. But now, that’s not exactly a problem, she wants to hurt this big creature, so she can finally let loose and see what she can really do. As it advances on her, she thinks back to a time when she was younger and her city was hit by a hurricane, the winds reaching upwards of 90 mph and strong enough to rip off roofs and carry people away.

With that thought in her head, she pulls back her arms close to her body, then quickly shoves them outwards, hands splayed, and wind follows that line of motion outwards, towards the body of the monster. These winds more than match the hurricane she experienced before and as she concentrates on maintaining that force, the skies above her start to cloud up. She doesn’t know if this wind will be strong enough, but she’s hoping it will at least slow it down long enough for Seth to get his wires in place.

[Haizea uses extremely strong winds centered on the body of the monster to try to slow it down]

Monster number two will remember this.

The first thing that happens, of course, is that it slows down in the face of all the wind. It squints its two eyes as it attempts to push forward. It wants! To kill! This wind knight! As it leans forward, it slams all of its leg spikes into the ground to anchor itself. Wood and stone splinter up around its legs and it stays fully in place.

And then one of the spikes on its back shifts, aiming forward as if it's going to shoot at Haizea. It's lining up the shot, very clearly preparing to be aggressive here in a few moments. Do or die time, Haizea? Stay and get spiked, or panic and run?

Seth rushed around the boardwalk to find something sturdy, to his relief finding a small resting spot with a roof supported by reinforced concrete pillars reasonably quickly.

Manifesting wires from the tips of his fingers on his gloved hand, he spun the wires around one of the pillars loosely several times first, then, looking towards where the monster was, sent them to wrap around the monster's feet.

He took a quick breath, and alright, here we go, with a quick motion of his wrist, he wrapped his gloved hand firmly in the wires, then grabbing them for good measure, holding onto the wrist with his non-gloved hand, and at the same time he pulled to tighten the wires, he started reeling them in to make them tie around the monsters feet. Yikes that was an unpleasant sound as the wires scraped against the concrete.

[Seth has wrapped wires around the monster's feet and is attempting to tie them up using his knight made wires and a reinforced concrete pillar for support to protect his hands.]

Haizea has no qualms about running from a fight she can't win, but she's not ready to bail yet. When she notices the spike taking aim at her, she starts darting around the boardwalk. The wind continues from the same direction she originally summoned it in until she pauses in her darting to summon it again, hoping to keep the monster on its toes and its attention on her.

Keeping the wind going at this speed as she runs is taking a lot of concentration and she's not fully aware of how dark the clouds above are starting to get. She's hoping Seth gets it tied up soon.

[Haizea runs around the boardwalk and changes the direction of her wind several times to make herself a harder target and keep the monster distracted]

Haizea succeeds at keeping the monster's attention, it doesn't take its eyes off of her and it certainly doesn't notice Seth's wiring shenanigans. It does, however, decide to take the shot anyway. But given the amount of distractions and wind in its eye, it's hardly going to be accurate.

But the spike still slams into the ground less than a foot away from Haizea. It hits with such force that wood chunks and water from beneath the boardwalk splash up and over her.

In the instant that it takes for it to notice it missed its attack, the monster suddenly starts to rush forward...

Only to slam eyes-first into the ground. The wires tangle up its spindly legs and they're not strong enough to pull free of them. The monster's entire body falls forward, landing with a pretty awful crunch on the wood. When it lands, bright green blood from its earlier top wound oozes out from between its spikes. The stab made by Zafika earlier is clear as day from this angle.

Seth stares in awe for a moment as the monster falls, and suddenly he feels kind of proud of himself! He can only barely believe he just did that!!

Then, realizing better to be safe than sorry, he sends more wires from his non-gloved hand to further tangle the monster's spindly legs.

[Seth tries to ensure the monster's legs stay tied up.]

The water doesn't bother her, but a piece of wood does hit her, leaving a bloody gash on her upper arm. She barely notices though, her pain tolerance has always been real high.

Haizea cheers when the monster goes down and thinks fast. Normally, she'd want to pummel it bloody, but with it covered in spikes she'd rather keep her distance. She quickly calls Fumicq and swaps out her brass knuckles for a long spear; Fumicq gives her a naginata with a wicked blade. She's never used a weapon like this but she's gonna do her best.

"Keep it tied up Seth!" she calls before charging, spear lowered. She's aiming for one of its eyes, but she'll see what she can get away with.

[Haizea charges the fallen monster and tries to gouge its eye out with her knight weapon, a naginata]

If the Monster had a mood calculator, its current status would've switched to rancorous.

Seth will find that it's shockingly easy to keep the monster down because it's not doing anything just yet. If he's paying attention, the leg spikes are slowly, steadily contracting into its body to become the same length as all of the others. But that would only last so long.

Fortunately for Haizea, the monster's predicament leaves it wide open to a stab as she charges forward towards it. She succeeds in stabbing into one of the two eyes, the effort resulting in a blorch of neon green blood over her.

Unfortunately for Haizea, the monster isn't totally defenseless. If she's not careful, she'll get stabbed by one of the spikes that the monster lines up like a javelin. It starts extending the spike towards her, making certain that she underestimates just how close it'll get with it.

Will she see it and dodge, or will she join the second monster's stab party? No matter which way it goes, the monster is now screaming. A horrible cacophany of two screams, high and low, mashed together into one voice as it bleeds.

It takes a moment, but when Seth notices the monster's leg spikes contracting into its body, he basically just wraps the wires more firmly around the pillar before disconnecting them from his non-gloved hand so he could hastily type. He's certainly wincing at the screaming and has to turn the volume of his phone to maximum for even a chance Haizea will be able to hear.

"Haizea, look out! It's definitely up to something, it's contracting the legs I tied up!"

Edited 2019-04-14 01:41 (UTC)

Haizea actually recoils, both from the wave of gross blood and the high pitched screaming, but keeps the naginata lodged in its eye, shoving it deeper if she can in grim determination.

... Until she hears Seth's text to speech. She can barely make out what it says but she figures if it was important enough for him to type it out, it was probably a warning. She doesn't bother to pull out the naginata but just jumps back and puts some distance between herself and the monster, calling the wind to swirl around herself protectively.

[Haizea shoves the naginata deeper in its eye then leaves it there and retreats, calling a strong wind to guard herself]

The monster! Hates! This!

And uh, at this point its tired of Haizea attacking it? As more blood gushes out of its stabbed eye, it brings even more of its spikes forward towards her. It ends up open to attack from every other side. The spikes line up and then it starts firing them directly at Haizea.

Wind shield or not, it doesn't care, it's shooting spikes right at Haizea! One dozen spikes one at a time!

Seth's eyes widen in fear as he sees the monster about to attack Haizea, leaving him momentarily frozen in plance, before he sends wires from his none-gloved hand's fingers, first wrapped around the pillar of course, he wasn't being a complete idiot thankfully, trying to wrap them around the monster inbetween the spikes and around some of them to try and hinder it's attack, grabbing the wires and pulling on them again as he starts retracting them to tighten them, gritting his teeth and swearing internally from the pain of the wires cutting into the palm of his hand.

[Seth tries to hinder the monster's attack (and cut into the monster with the wires but he's not really thinking about the latter)]

'Ah, this is bad' Haizea thinks as spikes start firing at her. She swirls the wind around her with as much force as she can muster and manages to deflect some of them, while others seem to pull back away from her as if yanked back by... wires? Thanks Seth!

However, one of them does manage to strike her, though thrown off course as it is, it's not fatal. The spike glances off the side of her head, the side shaved close to her head, and while it's not deep, it sure does start bleeding something fierce. Again, she doesn't really notice, not until she feels the blood drip onto her shoulder.

She touches the blood on her shoulder, then the side of her head, as the dark clouds above finally open up in a downpour, the wind still swirling around her stopping most of the rain drops from landing on her.

[Haizea is injured and makes it rain while keeping up her wind shield]

This is exactly the kind of content the monster signed up for! It wanted exactly this! Perish, knight, bleed everywhere!

Or at least, it would keep trying towards that end... except the rain starts up. Almost immediately, the monster's body starts vibrating in place and all the spikes start retracting towards it. It starts backing up, moving away from these two knights. The water is mixing with its blood and making it drip out more and more all over everything. It looks like it's bleeding more, actually?

Time to slowly shuffle and run away, peace out knights! See if you can catch this incredibly slowly moving monster! Never gonna happen!!

Seth stares in shock at the way the monster reacts to the water, for a moment frozen in place...
And then he's awkwardly typing on his phone while still trying to hold on tight to the wires wrapped around the monster and the pillar and continuing to internally curse because, ow, ow, the wires are still digging in his skin.

"It doesn't seem to like water Haizea! We should try to get it into the ocean!"

“Oh no you don’t!” Haizea grumbles as the monster tries to lumber away. Starting the rain had been almost instinctual, she hadn’t expected it to hate water so much. But now that she knows... She runs after it, willing the rain to fall harder, and angles herself to its side before calling another huge gust of wind, aiming this time to try and knock it off the side of the boardwalk into the ocean like Seth said.

This effort is taking a toll on her, she’s losing blood and concentrating as hard as she can. Eventually, she reaches a breaking point and falls to her knees, focusing only on her powers and trying to kill the creature that hurt her.

Finally, she collapses, a single peal of thunder the only warning before the clouds above let loose a bolt of lightning. She doesn’t have the power to aim it currently, but if her metal naginata is still lodged in its head then... isn’t that similar to a lightning rod?

[Haizea ups the intensity of the rain, tries to push the monster towards the ocean with wind, then collapses as she summons a bolt of lightning in hopes that it will hit her metal knight weapon lodged in the monster’s head]

The Weather

Prompts:

Procedure:

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject