Remove ads

Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Reader mode
Edit: Oh, I really missed the voting window. My bad.

[X] Happy 500th Chapter EJ Here's Some Dragonslaying

Wait, are we using 5sB silk skyslicers or the other variant of skyslicers? (I don't remember which seal this is, but the seal that Mari used to get people to chop wood - stick that one on a glider. No silk to burn! Infinitely thin! I think it's LBF?) Probably worth having some of both in the fray, in case one type works better than the other.

Did we decide that there was no safe level for a SIN seal? Think it's worth having a SIN glider in reserve in case things get really dire?

Other things that might be nice to have in flying form include blinding seals - banshees, overclocked daybright lantern seals, other sensory overload kinds of stuff. I feel like they'd be worthwhile as backups in case a retreat is needed.


ContextBot said:
The Great Seal structure is going to be a silicon lifeform or something like that. Basically a Dragon jinchuriki.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
of COURSE the great seal is going to be a living thing. That would just make too much sense, and would introduce too many excellent plot twists.

I bet the sage sacrificed himself to make the great seal.

What's this? The sage IS the great seal? QMs, I think your passwords need changing again.
 
Last edited:
cdeevfrr said:
(I don't remember which seal this is, but the seal that Mari used to get people to chop wood - stick that one on a glider. No silk to burn! Infinitely thin! I think it's LBF?)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You're thinking of Movable Force Walls, which are very sharp but not infinitely sharp, strong but not infinitely strong, and pretty swag in general but probably not up to the task of carving up a dragon.

Now, when we clear out our sealing backlog and get around to shrinking them down so we can equip them on a gauntlet, then they'll be something to write home about. How does 'lightsaber seal' sound to you?
cdeevfrr said:
Did we decide that there was no safe level for a SIN seal? Think it's worth having a SIN glider in reserve in case things get really dire?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Our first SIN experiment ended at SIN-13 with a sealing failure. We speculated that it might only be SIN-13 or above that fails, so we tried again. Our second SIN experiment ended at SIN-5 with a sealing failure. The general takeaway has been that there's no safe threshold for SINs, there's a risk no matter the size of the stack.

(And if we wanted to make a sealing failure glider we probably don't need SIN to accomplish it :p)
 
Further Exploiting Chakdar

So a while back, Jello_Raptor made an awesome post about ESP seals which basically described chakdar. While the seal was primarily built to provide users with advanced detection of the enemy, there was a secondary goal developing another sense. At the time there were a couple obstacles getting in the way of Hazou exploiting the secondary objective, with two standing out to me. The first was Hazou having the realization of developing another sense to begin with. The second concerned him wearing the seal long enough to develop a chakra sense.

For the first obstacle, I now wonder if we should have avoided framing this as Hazou developing another sense out of thin-air? Let's suppose instead that what he, and we the hivemind, would actually have been served better by the thought that what we were actually doing was advocating for strengthening a sense mostly exploited by clans and sensors. He should have thought of it as a chakra sense most shinobi think is present or useless, but that is just a particularly very weak or underdeveloped sense for most.

I believe that this lack of insight may have changed after the venture into the basement, SSA, increasing contact with biosealers, the actual chakdar itself, and the dog jutsu. These events should have pushed Hazou closer to realizing that beyond senses, things such as hunger can be augmented, so why not another sense that seems to be out of reach for most? It's the same for summon path jutsu being available to humans (some with certain tools or prerequisites). Clearly ninja are not only more adaptable than most think, many also have what it takes to exploit these exotic techniques when given sufficient resources. So the biological equipment is there to solve the first obstacle; it's the second obstacle that would involve more work.

For the other concern, I would allow for the fact that there's probably a general acknowledgement of sensory development ninja or of knowing that some blind shinobi have really good hearing. I'd also assume Mist has some rumors or legends of individuals with keen senses famous for techniques taking advantage of dark or foggy conditions. Perhaps visiting some blind shinobi might be of some help for some first hand experience if ninja like this aren't present in Leaf? Beyond that, knowing someone who can compensate with the loss of a sense should provide insight, but that's about it.

When it comes down to it, I think Hazou can speculate on seals altering or boosting non-traditional five senses (hunger, temperature, balance,chakra sense?) because of seeing the cannibal seal in action. Wouldn't be as dramatic as Orochimaru's scary seal, but the point is a seal can change a human's senses. Not sure he'd know to keep seals like the chakdar on for extended periods to develop a pseudo-sensor ability unless he has some idea of how ninja who train their senses to a high degree do so or those who have been forced by injury compensate. If he does though, I'm pretty optimistic that exploiting ESP seals for permanent gains is around the corner. Hazou's got the end of the world as motivation to want to grasp for exotic power-ups, so full steam ahead!
 
Last edited:
Orisha91 said:
Further Exploiting Chakdar

So a while back, Jello_Raptor made an awesome post about ESP seals which basically described chakdar. While the seal was primarily built to provide users with advanced detection of the enemy, there was a secondary goal developing another sense. At the time there were a couple obstacles getting in the way of Hazou exploiting the secondary objective, with two standing out to me. The first was Hazou having the realization of developing another sense to begin with. The second concerned him wearing the seal long enough to develop a chakra sense.

For the first obstacle, I now wonder if we should have avoided framing this as Hazou developing another sense out of thin-air? Let's suppose instead that what he, and we the hivemind, would actually have been served better by the thought that what we were actually doing was advocating for strengthening a sense mostly exploited by clans and sensors. He should have thought of it as a chakra sense most shinobi think is present or useless, but that is just a particularly very weak or underdeveloped sense for most.

I believe that this lack of insight may have changed after the venture into the basement, SSA, increasing contact with biosealers, the actual chakdar itself, and the dog jutsu. These events should have pushed Hazou closer to realizing that beyond senses, things such as hunger can be augmented, so why not another sense that seems to be out of reach for most? It's the same for summon path jutsu being available to humans (some with certain tools or prerequisites). Clearly the ninja are not only more adaptable than most think, many also have it takes to exploit these exotic techniques when given sufficient resources. So the biological equipment is there to solve the first obstacle; it's the second obstacle that would involve more work.

For the other concern, I would allow for the fact that there's probably a general acknowledgement of sensory development ninja or of knowing that some blind shinobi have really good hearing. I'd also assume Mist has some rumors or legends of individuals with keen senses famous for techniques taking advantage of dark or foggy conditions. Perhaps visiting some blind shinobi might be of some help for some first hand experience if ninja like this aren't present in Leaf? Beyond that, knowing someone who can compensate with the loss of a sense should provide insight, but that's about it.

When it comes down to it, I think Hazou can speculate on seals altering or boosting non-traditional five senses (hunger, temperature, balance,chakra sense?) because of seeing the cannibal seal in action. Wouldn't be as dramatic as Orochimaru's scary seal, but the point is a seal can change a human's senses. Not sure he'd know to keep seals like the chakdar on for extended periods to develop a pseudo-sensor ability unless he has some idea of how ninja who train their senses to a high degree do so or those who have been forced by injury compensate. If he does though, I'm pretty optimistic that exploiting ESP seals for permanent gains is around the corner. Hazou's got the end of the world as motivation to want to grasp for exotic power-ups, so full steam ahead!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hazō already has an exotic sense for Out stuff like the Dragons. It let him notice the Dragon during the recon mission. I think it's probably a smaller leap in logic to go "huh, it sure was neat that I was able to sense that Dragon" to "huh, it sure would be neat if I could sense ninja/chakra".
 
Remove ads
Chapter 500: Sharper than a Dragon's Tooth
  • Threadmarks

    • "No! Damnit, no! You put the central seal on the strand! You need to place the support seals on the loops, not on the strand!" the twiggy fleshbeast shouted.

    Fleshbeast so fussy. Drone #549,571 put papers on strands. Drone #549,571 do good thing, just like QueenMotherBelovedGoddess ordered when QueenMotherBelovedGoddess send Drone #549,571 and squadron to ArachnidAllies. Put papers on strands like ordered!

    Drone #549,571 turned away and pointedly buzzed off to tidy up the stack of papers that would be put on the strands. Things were much better when they were tidy. Stupid fussy fleshbeast. Icky. Stupid and icky.

    "Look," the fleshbeast said, audibly gathering its patience, "this is important. The way the Five Barrier Seal works is that the central seal goes on an object and the four support seals get arranged around it in a planar circle. The support seals can't be on the same object as the central seal or the seal won't work."

    The stupid fleshbeast was still yapping.

    "We need the seal to be active because it generates a protective effect over the object that the central seal is on," the fleshbeast continued. "It renders it immobile and indestructible, so when one of the Dragons flies into it, the Dragon will be injured. That means we need you to put the central seal on one strand and each of the support seals needs to go on the skytower outrigger platforms." The fleshbeast paused, studying Drone #549,571 closely. "Kumokōgō told me that you guys are smart. You understand me, right?"

    Drone #549,571 buzzed. It was an annoyed and grumpy buzz, but it was a buzz of acknowledgement. Yes, Drone #549,571 could understand the stupid, fussy, icky, squidgy fleshbeast and its stupid, fussy, icky fleshbeat yappings. It wanted Drone #549,571 to put seals on strands. Drone #549,571 did put seals on strands!

    The fleshbeast watched Drone #549,571 tidy the pile of papers for a moment and then sighed. "You know, when I was dealing with the Cats I was at least sure that they understood me," it grumbled quietly but not quietly enough that Drone #549,571 couldn't hear it. "Come with me, okay?"

    Hrmph. Drone #549,571 wondered if QueenMotherBelovedGoddess knew just how much trouble this assignment would be. Had Drone #549,571 been a bad drone? Was QueenMotherBelovedGoddess angry with Drone #549,571 and that was why She ordered Drone #549,571 to come work with dumb fussy icky gross squidgy fleshbeasts and ArachnidAllies? Drone #549,571 didn't mind ArachnidAllies—despite their inferior eyes they at least had the decency to cover up their squidgy bits with proper chitin! This fleshbeast...*shudder*. It was just so...so...so gross! It made Drone #549,571's stinger muscles shrink just looking at the thing! Any minute now and it would probably start oozing, or sliming, or something equally disgusting.

    "Come on," the fleshbeast repeated, waving one of its forelimbs. "We need to talk to the spinners, and then find Kumokōgō. Maybe she can clarify things."

    With a purely mental sigh, Drone #549,571 followed the fleshbeast over to where the ArachnidAlly spinners were working.

    "How's it going?" the fleshbeast asked. "How are you?"

    The ArachnidAlly the fleshbeast was speaking to was small, only twice the size of Drone #549,571. It was a pleasing brown with glimmers of green speckling. It was also trembling with exhaustion as the delicate silk flowed from its sleek spinnerets.

    "Well do I, Summoner. Thank you question for."

    The fleshbeast nodded. "How is the silk doing?"

    "Well does. Over a mile it is. Thin but strong, clean and free burrs of. Dragline all. Strong, but matte wrapping to gleaming prevent."

    "Thank you," the fleshbeast said. "That's going to be important." It nodded and turned to walk to the next spinner.

    Stupid fleshbeast. Rude fleshbeast. Couldn't see how exhausted spinner was? A mile of dragline? How many days had spinner been crouched here, doing nothing but spinning? How much food had it choked down, stuffing itself beyond gluttony so it would have the strength and the material to keep spinning? Rude, rude fleshbeast.

    Drone #549,571 followed the fleshbeast past the other spinners, studying the enormous amount of silk that had already been accumulated and placed in beautifully tidy coils because ArachnidAllies were decent, hardworking people with the decency to cover their squidgy bits and keep their things neat. Finally, after reviewing all of it, the fleshbeast led Drone #549,571 over to the pile of silk left from the previous rehearsal.

    "This," the fleshbeast said, picking up the coil formed by the hugely long strand of silk, "is the first line." The line was so thin that the fleshbeast could likely not even see it, because it had to pick up the whole coil. "You need to attach it to skytower number one, then place the central seal on it. Do it here, on the model." The fleshbeast gestured to the platform wire that was hanging two yards off the ground.

    This particular skytower was a thin metal wire that had been bent around itself to form a circle with a strand of wire across the diameter. Other bits of wire had been bent around spots on the perimeter, making horizontal platforms that extended a few inches from the body of the loop. A piece of paper had been wrapped around the center of the diameter, and four other papers were emplaced on four of the loops that stuck out from the perimeter. Another skytower hovered below it at fleshbeast-ankle height and another pair was positioned a few yards to one side. "Show me."

    Drone #549,571 glared at the stupid, rude, squidgy, pale, maggot-like fleshbeast, but it took the coil of silk, sorted through it with nimble forelegs until it found the end, and tied it next to the paper that wrapped the diameter-wire of the skytower.

    "Good. Now put the main seal on it. Be careful not to break it."

    Stupid fleshbeast. How stupid did it think Drone #549,571 was?

    With a mental sigh, Drone #549,571 pressed the appropriate piece of paper over where the silk was looped around the wire. It pressed firmly, making sure that it was in contact with the silk, then folded the seal down and around so that the pitch along the edges came together and glued the whole thing in place.

    "Great job. Now, put the support seals on."

    The sigh had progressed to barely-audible grumbles, but Drone #549,571 placed another of the pieces of—

    "No!" the fleshbeast shouted. "That's a support seal! You can't put it on the main strand! It goes on the outriggers of the loop!"

    Drone #549,571's muscles clenched, its stinger curling up and under in ready position. No. No, QueenMotherBelovedGoddess had said that Drone #549,571 was to obey ArachnidAlliesEmpress as if she were QueenMotherBelovedGoddess. ArachnidAlliesEmpress had ordered Drone #549,571 to do what the disgusting, rude, unpleasant fleshbeast said. The fleshbeast had not explicitly said that Drone #549,571 should not sting it to death, but that was probably safe to assume. Still...

    "Hazō," said ArachnidAlliesEmpress, walking up from the bottom of the trap tunnel, "go let it. What asking you are beyond is the drone's comprehension." She turned to Drone #549,571. "Come, little one. New plan there is. Woven the nets we have for you. You and your brethren aloft the nets will carry, along a mite rider with. You are comfortable a mite carrying?"

    Drone #549,571 buzzed happily. The mites were nice. Their little legs gave good scritches.

    "In perfect formation will you need to fly," ArachnidAlliesEmpress said. "If not, tear you will the net. Keep your spacing you must, and hover long enough next to the skytower for mite rider to join net to skytower and the seals turn on. Fortunately, very good at flying together and hovering you and the other Hornets are."

    Drone #549,571 buzzed happily. ArachnidAlliesEmpress said Drone #549,571 was very good at flying!

    "Come," ArachnidAlliesEmpress said, waving with one foreleg. "Summon your hivebrothers. The net is this way." She beckoned the fleshbeast to follow as well.

    o-o-o-o​

    "How did you get all the skytowers up there to anchor the net?" Hazō asked.

    "Only one skytower needed was. Same as the net with. A team of hornets bore them aloft, their mite riders activated the seals."

    "Impressive. Can all of the Arachnids use seals now?" His voice was distracted; off in the distance the Hornet squadron was aloft, flying in rigid formation towards the butte atop which the Dragons laired. The formation wasn't needed for this part, but apparently they found it comforting. Given what was about to happen to them—what they knew was about to happen to them—they deserved all the comforting they could get. Honestly, it was a little terrifying how willing they were to die. When he had hesitantly pointed out the issue to one of the drones it had looked at him as though he was the smallest, stupidest little grubworm to ever crawl out of a diseased body. "Not for safety of your QueenMotherBelovedGoddess you would happily die in glory? Scum."

    "No. It has proven to be challenging. Myself and a few dozen others, nearly all of whom were involved in setting up this trap." Her legs rippled, a soft tack-tack-tack-tack that Hazō was pretty sure implied nervousness.

    "Don't worry," Hazō said. "It's going to be amazing. The hornets bait one of the Dragons off the butte and lead it through the net. The strands are indestructible, the Dragon isn't." Hopefully. "It should—it will be sectioned up like a radish flower from Moritaki's."

    She cocked her head slightly towards him. It was a thing she had started doing to let him know that she was looking at him, since the arrangement of her eyes meant that it was hard to tell where she was focused. "A radish flower?"

    "Yeah, Moritaki's is this very high-end restaurant. As a garnish for their meals, they take a radish and they make neat slices in it, not all the way through, and then they peel the edges back so it looks like a flower. It's quite pretty."

    "Interesting. Perhaps try it I will. Not with gross plant thing, though. Spiders not gross plant things eat."

    "Where is the net again?" Hazō asked, not rising to the bait. Without waiting for a response he checked the sighting device that had been set up to answer exactly that question. It was a pair of forked sticks stuck in the ground; if you positioned your head such that the two forks lined up then you would be looking exactly where the net hung in the air. The net was invisible at any distance, the strands that made it up far finer than a human hair and carefully spun so as not to gleam the way most spider silk did.

    "You made them like we discussed?" he asked. Finally, his brain clicked on something from before. "Hang on, wait. Only one skytower was needed? How—"

    "Yes, Hazō, one only. Three hundred feet on a side net is, every twenty feet with strands vertically and horizontally." She raised a foreleg. "I know, original suggestion was six hundred feet and circular, but this simpler proved. That way a skytower at center would needed have, with strands radiating outwards and on each one a seal, since so careful you were to emphasize, over and over and over, that only protect a single object your Five Seal Barrier would." She chittered her amusement.

    Okay, maybe Hazō had been a little repetitive, but redundantly repeating critical information was good, right? Sure, and you could say that again.

    "That way it doing many skytowers required would have, for anchor points, and in the center one. If a skytower the Dragon noticed, break off it might before the net it passed through, or flame breath it might have used to destroy the net." She swung her cephalothorax back and forth in a mimicry of Hazō's own regretful head-shake. "Tsk, tsk. Invulnerable to push but not fire to? Flaw in your seal most basic. Significant oversight. Should get on that." She waved towards the sighting sticks. "Instead, a single long strand we used, woven back and forth on itself. A single thing, meaning only one skytower needed was, to anchor a corner while the Hornets held the other three corners spread out." She chittered in frustration. "Difficult it was. Strong our silk is, and light, but a net that huge still easily breaks, or tangles on itself. Four tries took it before success. Still, better this way was. No tower in center where Dragons sightline it would be in, and no other towers to the eye catch. Much harder to see."

    "That...makes perfect sense." He looked off into the distance, where the Hornet squadron were barely-visible dots. He caught himself shifting from foot to foot nervously and forced himself to stop. It was important to look calm at moments like this. "You set up the Force Walls at all the retreat tunnels?"

    "Of course. If skyslicer plan fails, bait hornets will flee to ground, hopefully escape to. Not bloody about that am I."

    "Not...did you mean 'not sanguine'?"

    "Sanguine bloody means, no?"

    "It does, but it also means 'calm' or 'confident'." Far off in the distance, all but a handful of the hornets were diving at the Dragons. The bait hornets waited at a distance, hovering low enough that they couldn't see the top of the butte and the Great Seal that crouched there.

    A RO4R 5pl!7 the a!r, s!@shing @ H#zō's b.ain even fr.m miles away.

    "It begins," Kumokōgō noted. "All right you are?"

    Hazō was bent over, hands on his knees, breathing deeply and focusing on keeping his lunch down. "I'll be fine," he said, waving one hand. "I just need...ugh...need a second." Several deep lungfuls of air had him back to normal and he straightened up.

    o-o-o-o​

    Drone #374,281 trembled in joy. Drone #549,571 had chosen it to be bait for the Dragons, because Drone #374,281 was the fastest flyer in the squadron! Drone #549,571 was squadron leader and had chosen Drone #374,281 to flee before the horrifying monster after the rest of the squadron-element died futilely stinging at its invulnerable scales in order to bait it aloft! Drone #374,281 was so lucky to die gloriously, protecting far-off Hive and QueenMotherBelovedGoddess! It wondered which Dragon would chase it down and eat it? The other squadron elements were each standing by to bait a separate Dragon. There was no way to know which one would come ravening after Drone #374,281 but Drone #374,281 was sure it would be the biggest and fastest! Drone #374,281 would lead it away and hivebrothers would be a little safer, dealing only with the smaller and slower ones.

    o-o-o-o​

    Drone #731,894 held still as Drone #421,338's stinger stabbed it quickly in the left eye and then the right before scooping them both away. Yes, the pain was huge, but it was all part and parcel of protecting far-off Hive and QueenMotherBelovedGoddess. Drone #731,894 could not be allowed to see the Great Seal atop which the Dragons laired, so removing Drone #731,894's eyes was the only option. The stupid fleshbeast had wanted to offer blindfolds, but those didn't hold reliably around unlidded compound eyes, and there was the possibility that they might slip and let Drone #731,894 see the Seal. Couldn't have that.

    It was done, and Drone #421,338 stroked Drone #731,894's back in apology and comfort at the necessity. Drone #731,894 buzzed back its happy acceptance and nudged its hivebrother. For glory and the protection of Hive and QueenMotherBelovedGoddess!

    The signal came and Drone #731,894 dove, following the flight path that it had been assigned. There was no being sure where exactly the Dragons were atop the butte, but it wasn't that big and the Dragons were. Missing would likely be harder than hitting.

    It went the assigned distance and then let loose from bladder and bowels, buzzing the strongest taunts it could think of: "Bad worker! Bad worker, shames QueenMotherBelovedGoddess! Doesn't help hivebrothers! Bad worker!" Hundreds of mites, shrunk to their smallest size, leaped from Drone #731,894's back and expanded. They had been blinded, just like the Hornets, but hopefully some of them would land on a Dragon's eyes or nose and get inside to do their work.

    There was a ROAR, and a snap of massive jaws, and Drone #731,894 died in glory, protecting Drone #731,894's Hive and QueenMotherBelovedGoddess.

    o-o-o-o​

    Drone #374,281 stopped breathing for just a moment as the rest of its squadron element went over the butte and died. It wished it could see them as they went, know the exact nature of their glory, but that would have meant Drone #374,281 might see the Seal and that would defeat the entire purpose of their sacrifice.

    The sky split with the crack! of massive wings unfurling as the Dragons leapt into the air and roared again.

    Eep!

    "Bad worker!" Drone #374,281 buzzed at the behemoths. "Slow! Lazy! Can't do its share!" It flew away as fast as it could, shaking its abdomen in insult.

    All around the butte, the other bait drones followed suit, using hurtful words and insulting body language to enrage the eldritch monsters of legend. Hopefully it would be sufficient, because this was not going to work unless the eldritch monsters of legend went for it.

    The eldritch monsters of legend absolutely went for it. Fire wooshed past Drone #374,281's back as it jinked and spun, flying the most erratic course it could.

    "Ha! Slow and stupid worker!" Drone #374,281 shouted back. Hm. Was that a hesitance in the Dragon's wingbeats, a lack of determination? It was hard to tell, since the Dragons' wings were nothing like proper Hornet wings. Still, couldn't have the monster give up and not chase Drone #374,281. Time to go hard!

    "Doesn't obey QueenMotherBelovedGoddess!" it buzzed as loud as it could. It fired off the stinkiest, most insulting pheromone blast it could manage. In preparation for this mission, Drone #374,281 had been eating lots of the fleshbeast's 'garlic' and 'onions'. They were nasty, and they did horrible things to the Hornet's digestive system, which meant that there was a very large, very satisfying thhbbbbwat! Oh, that felt so much better! Drone #374,281 had been holding that in for an hour!

    A wave of wind pressure trembled on the hairs of its abdomen; Drone #374,281 folded its wings and plummeted as the Dragon's jaws shot through where Drone #374,281 had been an instant earlier. The monsters' massive claws slashed, tips so sharp they gleamed as they missed Drone #374,281 by a whisker.

    "Hah! Clumsy drone!"

    Drone #374,281 snapped its wings out and looped upwards hard, pumping for altitude. The Dragon's body was above, already coiling back around for another pass. Drone #374,281 tracked along its scaled belly, so close that Drone #374,281 could feel the furnace heat pouring off the monster's scales. Those scales were huge, each one wider than Drone #374,281 was long, with serrated edges that would tear up anything they scraped against. The slightest touch would have ripped Drone #374,281 apart, but Drone #374,281 didn't care! It was flying, fast and faster, leading an enemy of Hive and QueenMotherBelovedGoddess to its doom! This was what Drone #374,281 had been hatched for, why QueenMotherBelovedGoddess had bestowed upon Drone #374,281 such speed and grace!

    The Dragon was coiling tighter, its body rising up in front of Drone #374,281, but it was too slow! Drone #374,281 shot past it and into the free air as the Dragon finished turning down, looking in the wrong direction. Oh, to have another thwbat available! It had to settle for peeing on the monster instead.

    "Lazy, slow, useless worker who doesn't obey QueenMotherBelovedGoddess!" Drone #374,281 buzzed. It didn't know if the Dragon could understand the words, but it apparently got the gist. The beast roared again, the power of the not-merely-sound tearing at Drone #374,281's soul and making it stumble in midair, its wings tangling as they hadn't since it was an infant. Drone #374,281 tumbled a dozen yards before it shook the spiritual impact aside and got itself straightened out.

    The Dragon was fast. Ridiculously fast. Far faster than Drone #374,281, which was embarrassing. It was also huge, meaning that it couldn't turn as tightly as Drone #374,281. That was very good, because it was the only thing keeping Drone #374,281 alive right now. Drone #374,281 flew a weaving, jinking, ridiculous path that would have gotten it a scolding for inefficiency back home but now was the epitome of efficient. Bursts of flame shot by twice, coming so close that Drone #374,281's legs were charred just from the heat of the air around the fire. It gritted its mandibles and kept flying. It didn't need legs, it only needed wings. This looping, unpredictable course had enormously multiplied the necessary distance but they were almost there. The skyslicer net was just ahead, and more elements of the squadron were waiting there, ready to take over baiting the monster if Drone #374,281 died too early. It wouldn't! It would bait the monster all by itself, for Hive and QueenMotherBelovedGoddess!

    o-o-o-o​

    Far below and miles away, Hazō watched tensely as the bait hornet led the Dragon into the skyslicer. Hazō kept his eyes firmly ahead of the aerial dance the two were locked in, carefully not letting himself look directly at the Dragon. Even at this distance, even with the monster only in his peripheral vision, his head was about to split and it was all he could do not to vomit. They were so close! The backup hornets were hovering a mile above and in front of the Dragon's current position, and the net had to be right about...there, barely fifty yards in front of it.

    He held his breath, hoping. There were so many things that could go wrong right now. The Dragon could give up the chase and go home. The hornet could accidentally fly through one of the strands of the net, killing itself and giving the game away. (The chances were tiny since the gaps in the mesh were fully twenty feet wide and high, but the strands were so fine they were invisible, meaning it was a possibility.) Or, alternatively, the Dragon might breathe—

    Hellfire gouted forth from the Dragon's mouth. It caught the bait hornet square on and when the flames cleared there was nothing, not even ash. An instant later, the Dragon swept through where the net had been, unharmed.

    "Shit!" Hazō muttered, punching a fist into his opposite hand. So close! They had been so close!

    The backup hornets dove, running for cover before the Dragon could loop up and get them. They dropped all around it, in front of it, and on all sides. It snapped three of them out of the air with one bite of massive jaws. (Hazō didn't l0k aw.y qVi7e in tim3 but manag3d to hold it together.) Its claws slashed out, shredding two more, but the remaining six were headed down, aiming for one of the prepared bunkers on the ground two miles below. If they could get into the escape tunnel they could collapse it behind them and skitter away, but the Dragon was in pursuit and it was faster, moving like a—

    The Dragon exploded in midair. Strips of meat, peeled apart like a radish flower, fell out of the smoke and fire.

    Hazō blinked in shock. He looked at Kumokōgō. "What just...?"

    "Silly Summoner. Think you only one skyslicer we would use?"




    Author's Notes: In the previous update, Hazō retroactively decided to work on the Light Relay seal. His clones spent 5 days doing prep work (giving him a +10 bonus) and on the 6th day Hazō rolled +9 for his research on Light Relay; he ended up working late into the night and completed the seal just before needing to fall into bed and sleep the sleep of the deserving hero.

    In this update, the Dragon ran into one of the secondary skyslicers. The Dragon was built in the style of a classic Eastern dragon, long and lean with a leonine head, a snake body, and four clawed limbs. It was also forty feet wide and about three hundred feet long. Imagine something like that running into a cheesegrater at a slight angle. The top of its head and portions of its neck were completely separated from the rest of the body. Its shoulders and torso were carved open back about sixty feet before it detonated. The flame destroyed the skyslicer but the Dragon was already well past dead.

    Kumokōgō insisted on waiting a full day before going anywhere near the corpse, just in case the other Dragons came to investigate. Hazō grumbled about this, but he agreed and went home to deal with other things, promising to come back midafternoon tomorrow to see what remained. It was good that they did it this way, because the other Dragons did in fact show up. They landed around the corpse of their murdered counterpart, spent several hours studying what had happened to it, and then burned the body to ash before returning to the butte. They were thorough, but enough pieces had flown clear that they missed a few. The Arachnids managed to recover five scales, one tooth, and parts of three claws. The longest of those is four feet long and curved like a sickle. The other two are fragments peeled away from the claw itself, the first one twelve inches long and the second nine inches. The largest of the scales is taller than Hazō, four inches thick, and the bottom edge is a razor-sharp serrated nightmare. The other scales are smaller, ranging in size from two feet across to the size of Hazō's palm.

    All of the body parts shimmer with an oily iridescence that makes Hazō very uncomfortable and his vision slightly blurry if he looks directly at them. He refused to put them in storage seals, but they were light enough that he was able to simply wrap them up in some heavy tarps and carry them back to Gōketsu Sealing Research Facility #6. Interdimensional transport is effectively instantaneous, but the tarps were partially eaten away by the time Hazō arrived on the Human Path. He dropped them and backed away fast, watching as the heavy canvas blackened and dissolved as though someone had poured acid on it.

    XP AWARD: 3 Most of this plan focused on things that didn't make any sense to me. You were setting up ambushes on the ground? Were the skyslicers supposed to be down there? I couldn't figure out what you were doing so I mostly went off and did my own thing.

    Brevity XP: 2

    "GM had fun" XP: 50


    FP Award: 2

    This update covered a day and a half. It is now 4pm and you're standing in the middle of GSRF #6 with a pile of Dragon body parts on the dirt in front of you.

    Vote time! What to do now? Voting is closed.

    Voting ends on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, at 12pm London time.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • eaglejarl said:
    Drone #549,571 put papers on strands. Drone #549,571 do good thing, just like QueenMotherBelovedGoddess ordered when QueenMotherBelovedGoddess send Drone #549,571 and squadron to ArachnidAllies. Put papers on strands like ordered!
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    *spittake* Wow, that's not the direction I expected this quest to take but I'm sure Hex will approve. Serving the Hive is an honourable task.
    I mean, hey guys, fun fact, did you know this sounds kind of like an *ahem* specific interest-oriented community of likeminded individuals not aged 17 or under? (Well, most everything is, but when you're a nerd for niche communities this jumps out)
     
    Now all we have to do is hope to not get killboxed because I don't think we ever told Asuma we were giving the Arachnids 5SB for use to kill a Dragon.

    Or maybe we did and I don't remember it, who the fuck knows?
     
    eaglejarl said:
    "No! Damnit, no! You put the central seal on the strand! You need to place the support seals on the loops, not on the strand!" the twiggy fleshbeast shouted.

    Fleshbeast so fussy. Drone #549,571 put papers on strands. Drone #549,571 do good thing, just like QueenMotherBelovedGoddess ordered when QueenMotherBelovedGoddess send Drone #549,571 and squadron to ArachnidAllies. Put papers on strands like ordered!

    Drone #549,571 turned away and pointedly buzzed off to tidy up the stack of papers that would be put on the strands. Things were much better when they were tidy. Stupid fussy fleshbeast. Icky. Stupid and icky.

    "Look," the fleshbeast said, audibly gathering its patience, "this is important. The way the Five Barrier Seal works is that the central seal goes on an object and the four support seals get arranged around it in a planar circle. The support seals can't be on the same object as the central seal or the seal won't work."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    is nice to see hazou is finally bonding whit his stepchildren, introducing them to the family trade no less.
     
    I precommit my vote to any and every plan that involves Hazou setting the Dragons skeleton in his parlor (with the exception made for being mean/cruel to a family member).

    Want to push an agenda through? Want to do a treason? Want Hazou to ask Sasuke out for a date? Want to have Hazou try to consensually ruffle Kei's hair as a mutual form of Ami-style Training? Now's the time, just have Hazou work on that skeleton.

    edit: nevermind, just learned that the skeleton was reduced to ash. That'll teach me to try and read the update while doing eleven other things. :(

    Edit 2: I want that dragon skeleton!!! >:/
     
    Last edited:
    RandomOTP said:
    I precommit my vote to any and every plan that involves Hazou setting the Dragons skeleton in his parlor (with the exception made for being mean/cruel to a family member).

    Want to push an agenda through? Want to do a treason? Want Hazou to ask Sasuke out for a date? Want to have Hazou try to consensually ruffle Kei's hair as a mutual form of Ami-style Training? Now's the time, just have Hazou work on that skeleton.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    [><] action plan: commit treason and set the skeleton in the parlor.
     
    faflec said:
    [X] Feed cursed based pieces to Orochimaru
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I was thinking more on the way of "oops, dropped the tooth on the ground, soldiers from beyond have sprouted and they are kinda murderous", so your proposal conjured the image of
    Orochimaru birthing the warriors
    and it felt like enough of a cognitohazard that it should be shared. Enjoy.
     
    Oh sure, let's bring bits of Dragon on the Human Path, it's not like the Sage locked them two layers of metaphysical bridges removed from the Human Path for a reason in the first place... It was behind three Thousand-Yard Stares' worth of epic sealmastery layers, and we had to bring them the remainder of the way! Bad Hazō, bad!

    That said we may assume that presenting Asuma and/or Tsunade and/or Orochimaru with them asap would have a net benefit - they have better research options than us, it proves we're not bullshitting them, it makes us more interesting and valuable to Snuncle and he may take another Gander at the GS replica... though when he wants to check it out for himself I'm not looking forward to the inevitable Snake/Arachnid problem
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top