Xiulan is also likely to be walking around once Ling Qi flew off, she's unlikely to just sit around savoring tea
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- United Kingdom
More that, with the current system of one scout and one 'commander' per village, if the assassin was looking to repeat their success then Xiulan would be the more likely target, between her and Ling Qi. By definition a scout is going to be a) perceptive and b) on guard, the latter particularly so when outside the wards.
- Location
- The Space Between
thankfully Lanlan gets antsy about "When Can I Start Burning!" and is unlikely to be alone where she can't flaunt and needle subordinates. LanLan's showmanship is a survival tactic! Haha
DKind of figured she'd noticed Zhengui being antsy and having personal Issues which...Xiulan personally feels? Like, Zhengui's whole thing about not feeling like he measures up is Xiulan's personal crisis for most of Year 1.thankfully Lanlan gets antsy about "When Can I Start Burning!" and is unlikely to be alone where she can't flaunt and needle subordinates. LanLan's showmanship is a survival tactic! Haha
- Location
- United States of America
So, what I'm really excited about is to have a good and proper fight with two people that our domain affects, one of which should get substantial benefit to our bonuses to armor and the like. It's going to be fantastic!
Turn 7: Arc 1-6
"That concludes what I have learned of Officer Song's location," Ling Qi finished, her words short and clipped.
"I will discuss the matter with the local members of the garrison, thank you for your aid Officer Ling," the soldier who had been escorting her said bowing low. "What will you do now?"
Ling Qi regarded him out of the corner of her eye as she stepped outside. She sympathized with his stress, and she dearly hoped that they could weather events until reinforcements could arrive. "I have been away from my command for too long. I need to return." As if to punctuate her words, the ground shook again, wind gusting down from the south. "...Hold on, the Sect must have detected something amiss by now."
"Of course Officer," the soldier said. She did not detect any blame in his voice or posture, only a certain fatalistic determination. It seemed the Sect trained their lifetime soldiers well. "We will hold until the last breath if needed."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Ling Qi replied absently. "Good luck."
Then, the man and the village were gone, shrinking below her as she rose into the sky, the moment she had gained enough clearance, she shot forward like an arrow, carving silently through the rushing wind as her depleted qi sent her south.
There was no banter this time. The sight of her fellow disciple lying dead at his desk, the thought of the tribesman she had killed today, worry for her friends and family, they all combined to drive Ling Qi to silence. The oppressive weight in the air, the clashing of qi so far beyond her certainly did not help matters, every time the storm wracked sky lit up, not with lightning but raw force of two fourth realm entities clashing, she nearly flinched. The rushing wind was nothing to the unnatural ripples that were spreading through the world in her spiritual senses.
She could sense beasts stirring even here, fear spreading like poison through the woods and hills. In the distance, she could see great flocks of birds rising from the trees, uncaring for species, uncaring for each other as they beat their wings and fled the brewing storm. She heard trees groaning and twisting, leaves raining down on the forest floor as they shied away from the south, and dirt and rock crumbling as roots began to move with ponderous but irresistible strength.
She just hoped that the commander and Liao Zhu were able to finish their clash soon. The disquiet in the world only grew worse as she flew further south, but she turned her mind from the forest below and kept her eyes ahead, on the gleaming blue ribbon of the river curving away ahead where the village she had left behind at the beginning of all this lay.
Chaos awaited her return. In the flight south she had seen the first signs. Great flocks of birds rising from the forest, raptor and songbird flying side by side to escape the growing weight in the air. Beneath the canopy beasts howled and yowled in fright as the earth shook and the wind gusted, and the pounding of a multitude of paws and hooves against the dirt added to the cacophony. As she flew further, she began to sense the disturbance in the trees themselves, heavy branches swaying without wind and roots moving with ponderous but unstoppable strength as the tallest and most ancient trees seemed to gird themselves to endure the coming storm while their younger brethren shook and cowered.
It was nothing compared to the scene that awaited her at the village itself. She had left behind a peaceful farming village huddled on the shores of the river, with beautiful green fields extending far upstream, nestled at the bottom of a valley. What she found on return seemed more like an embattled fortress. The rolling fields had been trampled to ruin, homes, barns and other structures sagging where walls had been blown out in the rampage of some beast. Even now spirits streamed through the trampled fields fleeing in all directions.
At the center, however things were more dire. Ling Qi's eyes watered at the fetid heat that radiated out from the battlefield she saw there, sickly and familiar. She remembered clearing out that nest of disease spirits just a few days ago, but it seemed there had been more pockets further south, very many more.
They churned from the southern forest like a moving river of chitin; centipedes, locusts, worms, crawling and flying things that she could not name, all flooded out from the southern hills, their buzzing and chittering seeming to shake the air. At the top of the ridge that overlooked the river, a massive wall had sprung up, formed of twisted bulging branches and boughs of vital green wood, it rose over ten meters high and stretched on for hundreds, like a shield braced against the ground against the oncoming beasts. The Sect's soldiers stood atop the twitching, living wall. Four first realms to every second, the lesser cultivators rained crossbow bolts that left contrails of boiling steam down upon the advancing tide in a continuous rain, their hands blurring with the speed at which they reloaded the devices. Their captains swept the sky with fire, wind, water and lightning, while the wall itself crushed, impaled and destroyed the things that crawled upon it with grasping branches and creepers.
She saw Xiulan standing at the center of the wall, a burning brand under the darkened sky. Heat radiated from her form distorting the very air and rendering her a miragelike appearance. Her gown seemed like a thing of liquid fire and her hair rose, smoking on drafts of superheated air. Heavenly energies crackled near the surface of her skin, shining through the faded scars of her triublation, as if her friend were merely a damaged container for an ocean of living lightning. Even as Ling Qi poured on further speed, blurring into a bolt of shadow in the sky, she saw Xiulan sweep her bandage wrapped hand out, and a river of blue-white flame boiled out, a searing beam that carved a trench through the advancing spirits, who died in their hundreds, incinerated or boiled in their own exoskeletons until they exploded in a shower of miasma. Where the beam passed, it left a molten trench in the earth, liquid glass and stone snapping and hissing in the suddenly cooling air. With her other hand, she wielded a many tailed lash of red flames, which snapped and coiled through the air, hissing with heat as it snatched a locust the size of a large dog from the air and flung it away from the wall.
The tumbling bug was snatched from the air by a pair of gigantic serpentine jaws, vanishing with a crunch down Zhen's throat as Gui stomped through the tide, uncaring of the insects that swarmed up his legs biting and gnashing futilely at his scales. Like clockwork, with every rumbling step, roots speared out from the earth, impaling scores of spirits before withdrawing back into the churned earth. Yet he was not unharmed. Ling Qi's eyes swiftly fell upon the patches of torn scales along Zhen's body, and the glowing crack that spiderwebbed across his shell, glowing with magmatic heat.
The one that had inflicted them was obvious, hanging over the field like a macabre banner, she saw the body of a truly massive insect, a centipede over twenty meters long, impaled upon three sharp wooden stakes the size of small trees, it's grey-brown shell pitted and burned through by fires and it's head a charred ruin. It's legs still twitched and writhed feebly despite that, and fetid gore that stunk of sickness and rot dripped from its perforated body, leaving bubbling pools in the dirt below.
As Ling Qi swept over the village, rattling window frames and kicking up dust in the streets, Zhen opened his jaws, baring his fangs to the sky, and a little spark of fire perched like a crown atop his head flared brighter as a sheet of hissing, bubbling venom shot from his mouth over a far wider range than he was normally able, melting and burning the flying vermin trying to pass him.
However, despite everything, the diseased things pouring from the southern forest were still numerous beyond counting, and so as she swept in, Ling Qi curved her flight to one side, the side least supported, and raised her flute to her lips. The dark melody of the forgotten Vale poured forth with an unusual energy, and as mist began to billow out, heavy with hungry phantoms, a ragged cheer rose from the wall. It came first from a handful, presences Ling Qi vaguely recognized from patrols and training runs, only to quickly be taken up by others as her mist engulfed the mass of flying spirits and their shredded remains began to rain down on the earth below.
Some were hardier than others, their chitin resisting phantasmal claws, but Hanyi's song, rising in counterpoint to hers, allowed that to be taken care of while conserving Ling Qi's own dwindling qi.
With her help, sweeping across the battlefield in a bank of deadly mist, the tide at last receded, leaving a field of twisted, miasmic sludge of insectoid bodies dissolved into diseased pools.
"Hmph, arriving at the last moment to steal the glory I see," the living conflagration that was Xiulan called to her.
As Ling Qi ascended to the top of the wall, heat and cold clashed where their auras met, violent winds rustling the cloaks of the soldiers nearest by, yet beyond base physical interaction, she felt Xiulan's domain, it was a hungry ambitious thing, lightning stabbing down from the heavens, a wildfire raging through dry brush, but it did not reject hers. If anything the flames roared higher and the lightning flashed more brightly as Ling Qi's own melody washed over them.
"I just can't help myself," Ling Qi stated, keeping the relief out of her voice as she alit on the wall beside Xiulan. Shadow still trailed from her limbs and lines of green glimmered in the folds of her gown from her activated techniques, but she had left her mist below, maintained by the echoes of her flute. Here, with Zhengui and Xiulan, Ling Qi felt her fatigue fade and her worries lessen. This was where she was supposed to be.
"I'll forgive it just this once," Xiulan said haughtily, her smirk shifting the lines of lightning that burned beneath her scars. "If only because I was growing sick of cooking these rancid creatures."
"You kept them all out of the village then?" Ling Qi asked cautiously, she knew it was only due to their fortitude as cultivators that they could stand the miasma rising from below, even so she had felt her skin crawl with sickly heat when making a pass through the worst of it.
"Of course," Xiulan sniffed. "Though only thanks to that spirit of yours."
"I protected everyone!" Gui boomed proudly, his voice echoing across the ruined field as he stomped back toward the wall. "It was really hard, but I did it!"
"Even foolish Gui can accomplish something in a pinch, but it was only due to I Zhen, that things went so well," Zhen hissed proudly. "It was my fangs that finished the beast!" Atop his head, the tiny flame, which Ling Qi only now recognized as Linhuo let out a crackling laugh.
"I've no idea where he learned such bragging," Xiulan murmured before raising her voice. "Soldiers! You have fought well, and with great bravery! It pleases me to have been able to lead such a fine force this day! I am certain we need only hold a short time more."
Her words brought a tired cheer from the men and women on the wall, though they kept their eyes and their crossbows trained on the south.
More quietly, and masked by the crackling heat her friend's expression grew more serious. "It is well that you returned. I am already down a half dozen men, the disease was too much for them, I have ordered a temporary camp set up for the wounded, since we cannot bring them into town. I am feeling a bit winded as well."
Ling Qi's eyebrows climbed at the frank admission from her proud friend. "I am not at my best either," she said quietly. "The other villages, they're holding, but there won't be any help coming from there. Have there been any other messengers?"
Xiulan grimaced, sparks spitting from her fingertips. "Only one, warning us to keep away from the South. Sect forces are inbound, but it seems this was not the only plague brewing in Sect lands, nor the only instance of higher raiding."
Ling Qi breathed deeply, putting the new fears that brought to mind away for now. It just confirmed the thoughts she had earlier. Something was terribly wrong. "I…"
Her words were cut off as the earth rocked violently beneath her feet, nearly throwing several soldiers from the wall, and her eyes snapped up in time to see something in the distance. From the silhouette of icebreaker peak, she saw a long, sinuous limb, a titanic tendril of some unknown thing, rise from the massive dust cloud where it had impacted the earth. For a second, Ling Qi stared, unable to comprehend the sheer size of the thing, which was visible from many kilometers away.
She was only able to stare, stupefied as something far too small to see smashed the thrashing tendril aside with enough force to tear a chunk of flesh that must of been the size of a house free. She watched the arc it described through the air toward them, a lumpy squirming mass of runny black ooze studded with mouths and eyes of innumberable shapes, already rotting in fast motion as it slammed into and flattened a grove of trees only a few kilometers away. She raised her arm to shield her eyes as a moment later, the wind of that blow buffeted her sending her hair and dress flapping behind her from the gale.
"...There is also that," Xiulan said dully.
"...We have to hope that Commander Guan can win," the admission tasted bitter in her mouth, but there was precisely nothing that she could do about the two titanic powers in the south. Perhaps in a couple of years, she could make a difference, but until then…
Xiulan shot her a sour look, as if detecting the thrust of her thoughts, and then turned away to address the shaken soldiers. However, at that moment a great cacophony arose from the diseased grove to the south, and the sound of wood splintering echoed as a massive red and brown form rose from the trees. Meters wide mandibles snapped, and hundreds of legs churned the earth as another grotesque titan of a centipede emerged from the earth. Below her, Zhengui bellowed a challenge, turning with surprising speed speed to face the new foe and the resurgence of the diseased spirits that came pouring out with it.
"Ling Qi!" Xiulan's shout drew her attention, even as Sixiang let out a wordless cry of alarm in her head, who stared at her with eyes wild with alarm, her bandaged hand was outstretched, fires already blooming from her fingertips, everything seemed to slow down as she saw the gleam of metal beneath her chin, saw the curved and serrated blade just a hair's breadth from her throat, and the slim grey skinned hand holding it, with digit's just slightly too long and thin to be human, reaching over her shoulder. Even now, she felt no presence, not any qi, nor even a breath across the back of her neck, despite the shine of deep purple venom practically dripping from the blades edge.
[] Move and Reorient
[Activate Sable Crescent Step and move immediately, activating as many of your perception arts as possible, with Sixiang boosting effects where they are able to prepare yourself for the fight ahead.]
[] Defend and Counter
[Activate Thousand Rings Unbreaking, and immediately counter with Aria and Hoarfrost Refrain, while Sixiang disrupts the enemies techniques. Use the enemies proximity against them to land a decisive wound.]
"I will discuss the matter with the local members of the garrison, thank you for your aid Officer Ling," the soldier who had been escorting her said bowing low. "What will you do now?"
Ling Qi regarded him out of the corner of her eye as she stepped outside. She sympathized with his stress, and she dearly hoped that they could weather events until reinforcements could arrive. "I have been away from my command for too long. I need to return." As if to punctuate her words, the ground shook again, wind gusting down from the south. "...Hold on, the Sect must have detected something amiss by now."
"Of course Officer," the soldier said. She did not detect any blame in his voice or posture, only a certain fatalistic determination. It seemed the Sect trained their lifetime soldiers well. "We will hold until the last breath if needed."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Ling Qi replied absently. "Good luck."
Then, the man and the village were gone, shrinking below her as she rose into the sky, the moment she had gained enough clearance, she shot forward like an arrow, carving silently through the rushing wind as her depleted qi sent her south.
There was no banter this time. The sight of her fellow disciple lying dead at his desk, the thought of the tribesman she had killed today, worry for her friends and family, they all combined to drive Ling Qi to silence. The oppressive weight in the air, the clashing of qi so far beyond her certainly did not help matters, every time the storm wracked sky lit up, not with lightning but raw force of two fourth realm entities clashing, she nearly flinched. The rushing wind was nothing to the unnatural ripples that were spreading through the world in her spiritual senses.
She could sense beasts stirring even here, fear spreading like poison through the woods and hills. In the distance, she could see great flocks of birds rising from the trees, uncaring for species, uncaring for each other as they beat their wings and fled the brewing storm. She heard trees groaning and twisting, leaves raining down on the forest floor as they shied away from the south, and dirt and rock crumbling as roots began to move with ponderous but irresistible strength.
She just hoped that the commander and Liao Zhu were able to finish their clash soon. The disquiet in the world only grew worse as she flew further south, but she turned her mind from the forest below and kept her eyes ahead, on the gleaming blue ribbon of the river curving away ahead where the village she had left behind at the beginning of all this lay.
***
Chaos awaited her return. In the flight south she had seen the first signs. Great flocks of birds rising from the forest, raptor and songbird flying side by side to escape the growing weight in the air. Beneath the canopy beasts howled and yowled in fright as the earth shook and the wind gusted, and the pounding of a multitude of paws and hooves against the dirt added to the cacophony. As she flew further, she began to sense the disturbance in the trees themselves, heavy branches swaying without wind and roots moving with ponderous but unstoppable strength as the tallest and most ancient trees seemed to gird themselves to endure the coming storm while their younger brethren shook and cowered.
It was nothing compared to the scene that awaited her at the village itself. She had left behind a peaceful farming village huddled on the shores of the river, with beautiful green fields extending far upstream, nestled at the bottom of a valley. What she found on return seemed more like an embattled fortress. The rolling fields had been trampled to ruin, homes, barns and other structures sagging where walls had been blown out in the rampage of some beast. Even now spirits streamed through the trampled fields fleeing in all directions.
At the center, however things were more dire. Ling Qi's eyes watered at the fetid heat that radiated out from the battlefield she saw there, sickly and familiar. She remembered clearing out that nest of disease spirits just a few days ago, but it seemed there had been more pockets further south, very many more.
They churned from the southern forest like a moving river of chitin; centipedes, locusts, worms, crawling and flying things that she could not name, all flooded out from the southern hills, their buzzing and chittering seeming to shake the air. At the top of the ridge that overlooked the river, a massive wall had sprung up, formed of twisted bulging branches and boughs of vital green wood, it rose over ten meters high and stretched on for hundreds, like a shield braced against the ground against the oncoming beasts. The Sect's soldiers stood atop the twitching, living wall. Four first realms to every second, the lesser cultivators rained crossbow bolts that left contrails of boiling steam down upon the advancing tide in a continuous rain, their hands blurring with the speed at which they reloaded the devices. Their captains swept the sky with fire, wind, water and lightning, while the wall itself crushed, impaled and destroyed the things that crawled upon it with grasping branches and creepers.
She saw Xiulan standing at the center of the wall, a burning brand under the darkened sky. Heat radiated from her form distorting the very air and rendering her a miragelike appearance. Her gown seemed like a thing of liquid fire and her hair rose, smoking on drafts of superheated air. Heavenly energies crackled near the surface of her skin, shining through the faded scars of her triublation, as if her friend were merely a damaged container for an ocean of living lightning. Even as Ling Qi poured on further speed, blurring into a bolt of shadow in the sky, she saw Xiulan sweep her bandage wrapped hand out, and a river of blue-white flame boiled out, a searing beam that carved a trench through the advancing spirits, who died in their hundreds, incinerated or boiled in their own exoskeletons until they exploded in a shower of miasma. Where the beam passed, it left a molten trench in the earth, liquid glass and stone snapping and hissing in the suddenly cooling air. With her other hand, she wielded a many tailed lash of red flames, which snapped and coiled through the air, hissing with heat as it snatched a locust the size of a large dog from the air and flung it away from the wall.
The tumbling bug was snatched from the air by a pair of gigantic serpentine jaws, vanishing with a crunch down Zhen's throat as Gui stomped through the tide, uncaring of the insects that swarmed up his legs biting and gnashing futilely at his scales. Like clockwork, with every rumbling step, roots speared out from the earth, impaling scores of spirits before withdrawing back into the churned earth. Yet he was not unharmed. Ling Qi's eyes swiftly fell upon the patches of torn scales along Zhen's body, and the glowing crack that spiderwebbed across his shell, glowing with magmatic heat.
The one that had inflicted them was obvious, hanging over the field like a macabre banner, she saw the body of a truly massive insect, a centipede over twenty meters long, impaled upon three sharp wooden stakes the size of small trees, it's grey-brown shell pitted and burned through by fires and it's head a charred ruin. It's legs still twitched and writhed feebly despite that, and fetid gore that stunk of sickness and rot dripped from its perforated body, leaving bubbling pools in the dirt below.
As Ling Qi swept over the village, rattling window frames and kicking up dust in the streets, Zhen opened his jaws, baring his fangs to the sky, and a little spark of fire perched like a crown atop his head flared brighter as a sheet of hissing, bubbling venom shot from his mouth over a far wider range than he was normally able, melting and burning the flying vermin trying to pass him.
However, despite everything, the diseased things pouring from the southern forest were still numerous beyond counting, and so as she swept in, Ling Qi curved her flight to one side, the side least supported, and raised her flute to her lips. The dark melody of the forgotten Vale poured forth with an unusual energy, and as mist began to billow out, heavy with hungry phantoms, a ragged cheer rose from the wall. It came first from a handful, presences Ling Qi vaguely recognized from patrols and training runs, only to quickly be taken up by others as her mist engulfed the mass of flying spirits and their shredded remains began to rain down on the earth below.
Some were hardier than others, their chitin resisting phantasmal claws, but Hanyi's song, rising in counterpoint to hers, allowed that to be taken care of while conserving Ling Qi's own dwindling qi.
With her help, sweeping across the battlefield in a bank of deadly mist, the tide at last receded, leaving a field of twisted, miasmic sludge of insectoid bodies dissolved into diseased pools.
"Hmph, arriving at the last moment to steal the glory I see," the living conflagration that was Xiulan called to her.
As Ling Qi ascended to the top of the wall, heat and cold clashed where their auras met, violent winds rustling the cloaks of the soldiers nearest by, yet beyond base physical interaction, she felt Xiulan's domain, it was a hungry ambitious thing, lightning stabbing down from the heavens, a wildfire raging through dry brush, but it did not reject hers. If anything the flames roared higher and the lightning flashed more brightly as Ling Qi's own melody washed over them.
"I just can't help myself," Ling Qi stated, keeping the relief out of her voice as she alit on the wall beside Xiulan. Shadow still trailed from her limbs and lines of green glimmered in the folds of her gown from her activated techniques, but she had left her mist below, maintained by the echoes of her flute. Here, with Zhengui and Xiulan, Ling Qi felt her fatigue fade and her worries lessen. This was where she was supposed to be.
"I'll forgive it just this once," Xiulan said haughtily, her smirk shifting the lines of lightning that burned beneath her scars. "If only because I was growing sick of cooking these rancid creatures."
"You kept them all out of the village then?" Ling Qi asked cautiously, she knew it was only due to their fortitude as cultivators that they could stand the miasma rising from below, even so she had felt her skin crawl with sickly heat when making a pass through the worst of it.
"Of course," Xiulan sniffed. "Though only thanks to that spirit of yours."
"I protected everyone!" Gui boomed proudly, his voice echoing across the ruined field as he stomped back toward the wall. "It was really hard, but I did it!"
"Even foolish Gui can accomplish something in a pinch, but it was only due to I Zhen, that things went so well," Zhen hissed proudly. "It was my fangs that finished the beast!" Atop his head, the tiny flame, which Ling Qi only now recognized as Linhuo let out a crackling laugh.
"I've no idea where he learned such bragging," Xiulan murmured before raising her voice. "Soldiers! You have fought well, and with great bravery! It pleases me to have been able to lead such a fine force this day! I am certain we need only hold a short time more."
Her words brought a tired cheer from the men and women on the wall, though they kept their eyes and their crossbows trained on the south.
More quietly, and masked by the crackling heat her friend's expression grew more serious. "It is well that you returned. I am already down a half dozen men, the disease was too much for them, I have ordered a temporary camp set up for the wounded, since we cannot bring them into town. I am feeling a bit winded as well."
Ling Qi's eyebrows climbed at the frank admission from her proud friend. "I am not at my best either," she said quietly. "The other villages, they're holding, but there won't be any help coming from there. Have there been any other messengers?"
Xiulan grimaced, sparks spitting from her fingertips. "Only one, warning us to keep away from the South. Sect forces are inbound, but it seems this was not the only plague brewing in Sect lands, nor the only instance of higher raiding."
Ling Qi breathed deeply, putting the new fears that brought to mind away for now. It just confirmed the thoughts she had earlier. Something was terribly wrong. "I…"
Her words were cut off as the earth rocked violently beneath her feet, nearly throwing several soldiers from the wall, and her eyes snapped up in time to see something in the distance. From the silhouette of icebreaker peak, she saw a long, sinuous limb, a titanic tendril of some unknown thing, rise from the massive dust cloud where it had impacted the earth. For a second, Ling Qi stared, unable to comprehend the sheer size of the thing, which was visible from many kilometers away.
She was only able to stare, stupefied as something far too small to see smashed the thrashing tendril aside with enough force to tear a chunk of flesh that must of been the size of a house free. She watched the arc it described through the air toward them, a lumpy squirming mass of runny black ooze studded with mouths and eyes of innumberable shapes, already rotting in fast motion as it slammed into and flattened a grove of trees only a few kilometers away. She raised her arm to shield her eyes as a moment later, the wind of that blow buffeted her sending her hair and dress flapping behind her from the gale.
"...There is also that," Xiulan said dully.
"...We have to hope that Commander Guan can win," the admission tasted bitter in her mouth, but there was precisely nothing that she could do about the two titanic powers in the south. Perhaps in a couple of years, she could make a difference, but until then…
Xiulan shot her a sour look, as if detecting the thrust of her thoughts, and then turned away to address the shaken soldiers. However, at that moment a great cacophony arose from the diseased grove to the south, and the sound of wood splintering echoed as a massive red and brown form rose from the trees. Meters wide mandibles snapped, and hundreds of legs churned the earth as another grotesque titan of a centipede emerged from the earth. Below her, Zhengui bellowed a challenge, turning with surprising speed speed to face the new foe and the resurgence of the diseased spirits that came pouring out with it.
"Ling Qi!" Xiulan's shout drew her attention, even as Sixiang let out a wordless cry of alarm in her head, who stared at her with eyes wild with alarm, her bandaged hand was outstretched, fires already blooming from her fingertips, everything seemed to slow down as she saw the gleam of metal beneath her chin, saw the curved and serrated blade just a hair's breadth from her throat, and the slim grey skinned hand holding it, with digit's just slightly too long and thin to be human, reaching over her shoulder. Even now, she felt no presence, not any qi, nor even a breath across the back of her neck, despite the shine of deep purple venom practically dripping from the blades edge.
[] Move and Reorient
[Activate Sable Crescent Step and move immediately, activating as many of your perception arts as possible, with Sixiang boosting effects where they are able to prepare yourself for the fight ahead.]
[] Defend and Counter
[Activate Thousand Rings Unbreaking, and immediately counter with Aria and Hoarfrost Refrain, while Sixiang disrupts the enemies techniques. Use the enemies proximity against them to land a decisive wound.]
Sable Crescent Step: B rank
A master of this art may bring its lessons together in a single movement, an impeccable step of matchless grace. The cunning master may find several uses for this movement. A single attack of equal or lower may be avoided, no matter how unerring the aim, as the user simply ceases to exist in the material world for a moment, rematerializing with Far range of their current position. If more offensively inclined, the user may instead make a single physical attack utterly bypassing up to C rank physical armor and damage reduction, and rematerialize within Close range of their target. Targets with higher damage or armor reduction instead have it reduced by two ranks for the purposes of determining damage.
Thousand Rings Unbreaking: B
Duration: Long
The eldest trees of the Emerald Seas are mighty things, ancient and nigh invulnerable, akin to living mountains. By calling upon the image of their power, the user gains some measure of their primeval resilience,ignoring minor wounds entirely, and lessening the effect of greater ones. Under this affect, the user becomes utterly immovable to enemy action, and cannot be grappled, unless the enemy's cultivation exceeds theirs by two levels or one realm. This effect may be extended to up to ten allies. So long as this effect is active, the user cannot be incapacitated, any blow that would reduce their health to that point instead reduces it to the lowest rank possible. On activation of this aspect, Thousand Rings Unbreaking is automatically dispelled. This effect may only activate once per scene.
A master of this art may bring its lessons together in a single movement, an impeccable step of matchless grace. The cunning master may find several uses for this movement. A single attack of equal or lower may be avoided, no matter how unerring the aim, as the user simply ceases to exist in the material world for a moment, rematerializing with Far range of their current position. If more offensively inclined, the user may instead make a single physical attack utterly bypassing up to C rank physical armor and damage reduction, and rematerialize within Close range of their target. Targets with higher damage or armor reduction instead have it reduced by two ranks for the purposes of determining damage.
Thousand Rings Unbreaking: B
Duration: Long
The eldest trees of the Emerald Seas are mighty things, ancient and nigh invulnerable, akin to living mountains. By calling upon the image of their power, the user gains some measure of their primeval resilience,ignoring minor wounds entirely, and lessening the effect of greater ones. Under this affect, the user becomes utterly immovable to enemy action, and cannot be grappled, unless the enemy's cultivation exceeds theirs by two levels or one realm. This effect may be extended to up to ten allies. So long as this effect is active, the user cannot be incapacitated, any blow that would reduce their health to that point instead reduces it to the lowest rank possible. On activation of this aspect, Thousand Rings Unbreaking is automatically dispelled. This effect may only activate once per scene.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Oh hey it's the assassin again.
[] Defend and Counter
He's had time to scope us out, he's had time to see that Ling Qi is a dodgy, flighty girl. And he is right on top of us.
We need to deploy part two of the Ling Qi package now, and that is take it on the god damn chin and then break him over our knee, if we let him stealth again, we'll never find him--but if we fuck him up, we're liable to end him.
[] Defend and Counter
He's had time to scope us out, he's had time to see that Ling Qi is a dodgy, flighty girl. And he is right on top of us.
We need to deploy part two of the Ling Qi package now, and that is take it on the god damn chin and then break him over our knee, if we let him stealth again, we'll never find him--but if we fuck him up, we're liable to end him.
Theunderbolt
"Prepare for trouble..."
- Location
- USoA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yyyyyep, I think it was the right call to head back, this is going to be an area of contention, even without our newest guest.
Welp, at least we managed to track him down. I've said before that a Stealth White is probably the most terrifying sort of White there can be, as someone that beyond detection cannot be stopped, and this demonstrates the principle. You can casually kill peers at their weakest and most distracted.
Inclined to bunker up and land a hit on him while we can. If he goes Stealth again I don't know if we can detect him. SCS shadow-step might not prevent all of the damage either.
Welp, at least we managed to track him down. I've said before that a Stealth White is probably the most terrifying sort of White there can be, as someone that beyond detection cannot be stopped, and this demonstrates the principle. You can casually kill peers at their weakest and most distracted.
Inclined to bunker up and land a hit on him while we can. If he goes Stealth again I don't know if we can detect him. SCS shadow-step might not prevent all of the damage either.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
well this is exciting!
- Location
- Canada
Damn, the first time I read it I thought the assassin was after Xiulan. It took me a second to realize it was after us.
I find this quote really interesting as well. I might be reading too much into it, but I see this as a reflection of Xiulan's ambition being ignited by Ling Qi's presence. A part of me wonders if Xiulan would even be in the inner sect if Ling Qi wasn't around to provide the motivation; Ling acts as a constant reminder that if she doesn't keep pushing she'll be left in the dust.
I find this quote really interesting as well. I might be reading too much into it, but I see this as a reflection of Xiulan's ambition being ignited by Ling Qi's presence. A part of me wonders if Xiulan would even be in the inner sect if Ling Qi wasn't around to provide the motivation; Ling acts as a constant reminder that if she doesn't keep pushing she'll be left in the dust.
Varder
Tired Cultist
- Location
- Hell
Did you miss all the descriptions of our Wood's art defences techs being activated and used repeatedly during this fight? If the assassin scoped us out, he knows we have such shield. On the other hand, we used our "perfect step" darkness teleportation tech only once.
What scenes do you think he's been watching? Because if he was watching the first village's battle, he would have seen us both tanking attacks and dodging, and if he was watching the second battle he would likely have seen neither.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I'm not referring to "He's been shadowing us the entire time we've been here", because if that's the case, we're fucked.
I'm referring to "Since Ling Qi got to this theatre in the first place".
My bet is that he fucked up that one village, then immediately came here to sabotage the defense, because if the beast tide ruins the valley, all evidence he was here in the first place is fucking gone. We just blundered into his exact position and he reassessed and took a poke at us instead of Xiulan.
But we've seen it many times before. Ling Qi codes as a squishy support specialist visually and to most perception senses, the only ones who actually know that she has a stiff defense are people who've actually pushed her really hard in the first place.
He can't know that, and it's the very fact Ling Qi has taken damage that'll give him confidence.
The last thing I want is this fucker disengaging, popping an awareness reset in the confusion of the battle, and then trying again. So I'm willing to risk shedding blood to break his god damn skull in. Remember that Fortitude and Resilience are both primed for evolution too.
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- Location
- United States of America
Zhengui is the best. Creating a wall ten meters tall and hundreds wide? That's really impressive, and I'm super proud that he was able to manage it!
Xiulan is also amazing. Like, I can't even imagine what it would be like to fight this torrent of heat and lightning.
I'm sad that he was hurt to this degree, but I'm really happy that he has grown this much. He's a murdering machine when he has a hard point to defend, a huge wall and with every step scores of lesser spirits die. He's grown up so much from his time as a little youngling!
If your were the assassin, would you gone for the boss or the minion?
deadcrystal
Slaaneshi Cultist
- Location
- The Warp
That is one sneaky-ass Skaven!
No letting Skaven with PC levels escape.
No letting Skaven with PC levels escape.
- Location
- Vancouver
Any MO would be pretty terrible if you couldn't kill peers at their weakest and most distracted.
Well this is...interesting.
For the first time in a while I find myself almost 50/50 on a choice here.
The big thing is, if the Assassin is coming after us he must have confidence that he can kill us.
It sounds obvious but this could mean anything based on what we've shown. Either he thinks/thought that he could get the drop on us and execute without a chance to defend or it feels like it can counter whatever response we have, defense or evasion. We don't know how deep the read is.
There's no safe route so adjusting for risk... I think we take the hit here. The decider in the end is that if we evade we ultimately leave the Assassin unmolested for a few precious seconds and if he read that then Xiulan is obviously the next in line. She has showcased basically no hard defense abilities and so if the Assassin decides to trade an arm for her life, so to speak, he might be successful. .
We DO have a hard defense technique however, and while it might not be bolstered by the insight I wanted this is basically its prime use case. Furthermore if the Assassin does have full crit and this is a bad decision, we stand a better chance of surviving this folly with everybody intact than we do if the other route is the bad decision.
This isn't sect games, this is playing for keeps. Adding to the point, given that we aren't' sensing them literally inches away from us this might be the only chance to deal with this decisively.
[] Defend and Counter
And hey, if we survive we can always try that shadow move to see if we can make physical injuries less relevant. Insight opportunities!
For the first time in a while I find myself almost 50/50 on a choice here.
The big thing is, if the Assassin is coming after us he must have confidence that he can kill us.
It sounds obvious but this could mean anything based on what we've shown. Either he thinks/thought that he could get the drop on us and execute without a chance to defend or it feels like it can counter whatever response we have, defense or evasion. We don't know how deep the read is.
There's no safe route so adjusting for risk... I think we take the hit here. The decider in the end is that if we evade we ultimately leave the Assassin unmolested for a few precious seconds and if he read that then Xiulan is obviously the next in line. She has showcased basically no hard defense abilities and so if the Assassin decides to trade an arm for her life, so to speak, he might be successful. .
We DO have a hard defense technique however, and while it might not be bolstered by the insight I wanted this is basically its prime use case. Furthermore if the Assassin does have full crit and this is a bad decision, we stand a better chance of surviving this folly with everybody intact than we do if the other route is the bad decision.
This isn't sect games, this is playing for keeps. Adding to the point, given that we aren't' sensing them literally inches away from us this might be the only chance to deal with this decisively.
[] Defend and Counter
And hey, if we survive we can always try that shadow move to see if we can make physical injuries less relevant. Insight opportunities!
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Less than you'd think.
My bet's that he made his move at the last village and then moved here to similiarly terminate the defense. We just got back there in time, and turned the tables hard enough that he felt he had to attack us to get things back on track, but he hasn't had time to establish whether Ling Qi has a hard defense or not (She has two, we're deciding which one we're using now)
It's likely the only intel he has on us is what he's seen since Ling Qi got here.
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- Location
- Germany
I argue for tanking the damage and showing our stabby friend the fastest way to his END.
Is Ling Qi not here to defend her family? IF the enemy didn't attack her it could be Lanlan or herson brother. Stand against the families enemies and defend the home!
ON another note entirely. I saw this.
Or Ling qi is on the cusp to some kind of battle insight? Who knows!
I for one am excited for the coming conflict, because this battle is far from the only one being fought in our vicinity.
Is Ling Qi not here to defend her family? IF the enemy didn't attack her it could be Lanlan or her
ON another note entirely. I saw this.
It seems The stress of battle maybe changed the energy. It could also be a reaction to all the impure cultivation qi in our surrounding area. Does anybody have any text passages from the underground adventure in the deep hole with Li suyin which it could be compared to?
Or Ling qi is on the cusp to some kind of battle insight? Who knows!
I for one am excited for the coming conflict, because this battle is far from the only one being fought in our vicinity.
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TimEd
Meteor maker
I wanna have Ling Qi counter attack here. This assassin probably just got here and saw Ling Qi come with Mists a rolling.
On the other hand, if the assassin coming here is unrelated to Ling Qi, we just might have saved Xuilan's life, or at the least have her avoid another debilitating injury. She's too much like a Glass Cannon, and she hasnt disabused us of that notion at all.
On the other hand, if the assassin coming here is unrelated to Ling Qi, we just might have saved Xuilan's life, or at the least have her avoid another debilitating injury. She's too much like a Glass Cannon, and she hasnt disabused us of that notion at all.
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