Remove ads

Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
Holy shit. What an arc. Extremely glad we picked this, defending villages was an excellent direction for Qi's efforts.

yrsillar said:
Fortitude and Resilience advances to Unbroken Will

Unbroken Will: A skill representing Ling Qi's raw, tenacious will to live, even in the face of insurmountable odds. Allows the use of Resolve in the place of Stamina for physical armor.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

What many were expecting, but it's still thematic as hell and super badass.

yrsillar said:
She could already feel the assassin slipping free, their wrist growing still softer, almost boneless in her grip as they tried to slip away, but all the same, she heard a high pitched almost canine wail of pain as Xiulan cast a blinding white lance from her fingertips. Barely more than a finger wide, it was not just flame, nor lightning. It seemed almost liquid behind the shimmer of heat, a lance of sunlight, devastating in it's purity.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Ooooh, I was wondering what Xiulan had that was precise enough to not hit Qi.

yrsillar said:
Though it avoided the full weight of the melody, Ling Qi still saw flesh blacken and freeze on the creatures feet and legs as it flipped through the air, her qi punching through the creatures paper thin defenses.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Aw yeah!

yrsillar said:
"Ling Qi, I can't remove the poison," Sixiang hissed, frustration and fear coloring their voice.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Aw shit. We underestimated this poison a bit.

yrsillar said:
It's limbs a blur. In one smooth motion, the creature reached into a pouch at it's belt and flung something toward them. Ling Qi glimpsed a dark purprle crystal tumbling through the air for a fraction of a second before it exploded a rippling wave of black smoke engulfing both her and her friend. She felt the mist seeping into her channels, through her eyes and her ears and her nose, eating away at the qi enhancing her senses like acid.

"No," she snarled, and her left hand rose, to the sound of tiny bells chiming. The jeweled symbols of the moons hanging across the back of her hand flashed and grew hot, ruby inlay blazing, and drank in the smoke, the air howled as the foulness was sucked in, vanishing into the delicate talisman as if it had never been.

Somehow, even with its face wholly covered, she read startlement in the assassins frame as it was revealed, halfway into shimmering out of visibility by twisted currents of air.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Huh, I suppose that his smokebomb is about dispelling perception arts, instead of starting a Stealth/Obfuscation effect, hence why our Resist bling worked. Pretty sweet.

yrsillar said:
Xiulan's lash struck out, and the creature did not have the time to reverse momentum, not enough time to adjust course as tongues of flame curled around it's limbs and slammed it into the rough green wood of Zhengui's rampart. The column of flames and distorted air around her friend hissed with the fury of an uncontrolled wildfire as lightning roared out to scourge the trapped assassins pale hide.

Ling Qi forced herself to ignore the growing pounding in her head, the spots starting to appear in her vision as the wound carved across her shoulder throbbed. The tips of her fingers felt numb, and an unpleasant tingling feeling was spreading through her chest, but the assassin was not down yet. Even now, rising she could see movement where it struggled against Xiulan's lash rising from the smoking pit in the wood that the lightning crashing down on it had wrought. Black miasma rose from it's flesh, absorbing jagged trails of electricity.

Again, she sang the song the Hoarfrost Refrain, even as her qi guttered low, lower than she had felt it in a long time. Was it the poison, draining her qi so badly? She powered through the weaving of the qi for the technique regardless, ignoring the leadennes in her limbs, and the way she was gradually losing altitude as the trickle of qi keeping her afloat grew unstable.

The assassin shuddered, flesh freezing under the harsh melody, the miasma not enough to hold back the effects of her mentors song. A crossbow bolt, whistling with steam, thudded into it's hunched back, punching through leather and flesh. She felt it then, the creatures foul qi surging as it finally slipped the bonds of Xiulan's lash and lunged, dark qi bulging under its skin, filling channels to the point of bursting. Xiulan began to move back, startled, but she could see that it would not be fast enough. Viridian energy rippled across Ling Qi's gown as she activated Deepwood Vitality, gleaming shells of bright green qi shimmering across herself, Xiulan and all the soldiers within range.

Just in time as the assassin's flesh tore apart under the strain of the growing qi, and a wave of utter foulness washed over them. It was not acid, nor slime, nor anything else so easy to describe. It was the essence of filth, foul beyond words, and even beneath her technique, Ling Qi gagged and held back tears from watering eyes. She felt her technique shatter under the weight of it, but it had held long enough. The technique had passed. A vast scoop of the rampart was gone, eaten away, rotted into sludge.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yikes, a suicide Impurity bomb, what on earth was this thing?

Still though, this was a success. What an absolute beatdown.

yrsillar said:
"Vile thing," Xiulan spat as she dragged herself out of the pitted crater with a flick of her wrist, her flame lash having caught onto a protruding branch of the surviving rampart. Across the way, men scrambled to climb back up the broken wall, but Ling Qi was glad to see them unharmed too. "Thank you Ling Qi."

"Your welcome," Ling Qi said dizzily, and a moment later, her feet hit the ground with a thump. Her head felt light, there was another thump, she fell to her knees. How silly, that wasn't the sort of thing that was supposed to happen any more.

"Ling Qi?!" Xiulan cried out from… somewhere near by.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Damn, she didn't know about the poison until Qi started to collapse, after she'd assumed it was over and relaxed into post-fight banter.

yrsillar said:
She felt Xiulan tugging on her arm, pulling it around her shoulder. "That's not gonna work, you're too short," she murmured dizzily.

"Do be silent," Xiulan snapped, and Ling Qi felt the rush of wind as she leaped down from the rampart. "...Idiot girl, why did you take the beasts knife. I know you could have dodged it."

"Wouldn't have been able to set it up for a good enough counter," Ling Qi muttered as they fell down into. "Mighta let it take a shot at you."

"Fool," Xiulan repeated harshly.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Lol, concussed Ling Qi firing shots at her many short friends.

yrsillar said:
"...Sorry, it still seemed like the best choice though," Ling Qi said quietly to Xiulan.

"I am sure it did," her friend said with a sniff. "You madwoman."

"Say's the one who went out to let herself get struck by lightning on purpose," Ling Qi snorted.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It was the best choice, methinks. We had a tough enough time taking it down already, we needed those opening shots.

yrsillar said:
From the now ruined copse to the south, a second and then a third titanic insectoid form reared.

"...Bullshit," Ling Qi breathed.

"Language," Xiulan said beside her, staring up at the enemies with a blank expression. "Can you run?"

"I think so," Ling Qi said, rising to her feet, only a little dizzy.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yikes.

yrsillar said:
She felt her stomach sink. Could they really keep holding here? She could feel Xiulan's qi dangerously low after raining down so many powerful attacks on the assassin. She herself had almost nothing the poison eating away at whatever sparks of qi tried to refill her dantian, even as it burned in her veins.
Just as she began to consider that they might have to abandon the village though, a second sun bloomed in the sky. The two titanic centipedes, already scuttling forward toward the battlefield had only an instant to let out ear piercing screams as a crescent of liquid gold crashed down on them. Rotted and splintered wood was vaporized instantly, and segments of the beasts bodies blackened and swelled, exploding from the heat before the molten metal even touched them. When it did, they were gone.

Ling Qi looked up, unblindinded by the descending light, and saw the source. Gu Yanmei descended from the sky on wings of liquid gold. In her hand was a sword that seemed like a shard of the sun, and her mere presence brought death to the swarm. Lesser spirits died, vaporized in mid air, erased as if they had never been, toxic pools bubbled and hissed, evaporating as if they never were, purified by the light of a descending sun.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Damn, Cyan backup is here to turn this front around.

yrsillar said:
"Sister," Gu Xiulan interrupted, and the older girl's eyebrows shot up. "Sister please, my friend, Ling Qi, she has been badly poisoned."

"If there is anything you can do Senior Sister, it would be appreciated," Ling Qi said weakly, she was beginning to feel dizzy again, and the lessening pain probably had more to do with damaged nerves than weakening toxin.

The earth shook beneath her feet again, almost making her lose her balance. She saw the Core disciple above her glace away, hesitating for just a fraction of a second. "I am no medic, but there is a reason I was deployed against this foulness," Ling Qi's eyes widened as Gu Yanmei leveled her sword, the blinding blade pointing directly at Ling Qi. "This will hurt," the stoic girl said curtly, if not unkindly.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Thank every spirit that Xiulan got her to do that. That was about what people theorized that Xiulan might have as a Fire healing art, just burning the poison out.

yrsillar said:
However, the last thing she experienced as her consciousness faded was Gu Yanmei's head whipping around in alarm as the earth rocked, no mere minor tremor like Ling Qi had felt before, but a violent quaking that threw her from her feet. Far, far to the south, in the great mountains of the wall, Ling Qi saw the sky split asunder. She saw a mountaintop disintegrate into so much powder, and saw the storm wracked clouds rip apart in an expanding cone leaving behind a bare blue sky. Gu Yanmei's molten wings flared out, and she felt the Fourth realms energies slam into place over the rampart and village shielding everyone from the terrible gale that ripped through in its wake.

But by the time she felt her back impact the dry, burnt ground her vision was already fading.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Aaaaand the mountain fucking explodes. Yep, extremely fortunate that Yanmei was right there.

yrsillar said:
"Senior Brother, what happened after I…?"

She trailed off as she turned to look at him. He too was seated on a patients bed in a patients gown, though his mask remained in place. However, that oddity was worth little attention, compared to the empty right sleeve of his gown.

He chuckled. "My apologies Junior Sister, it looks as if this Senior was not wholly invincible after all. He is sorry for disappointing."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Mooooon booooooooiiiiiiii :cry::cry::cry:

yrsillar said:
"I… will the Medicine Hall be able to fix it?" She asked with faint horror.

"Perhaps if it were merely severed," he said shaking his head. "But no, it is gone, devoured flesh and spirit. Even the channels are gone. I will simply have to adjust."

"I'm sorry," Ling Qi said, ducking her head, she didn't know what to say.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Permanent loss of his right arm. Fuck.

Really hope this doesn't kneecap his own ambitions.

yrsillar said:
"...If this was just a…" Ling Qi swallowed down bitter words at the idea of everything she had seen being a mere sideshow. "What… what was the main objective then?" She asked, taking a steadying breath.

Liao Zhu was silent for several seconds, staring up at the ceiling of the medical wagon.

"Elder Zhou has been slain."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Aaaaagggghhhh. Rest in peace, our muscle-head instructor./Commander. You were there at our beginning, and gave us the strength to continue climbing our endless mountain.

yrsillar said:
+50 CP
Gained Impure Assassin's Dagger
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

A potent weapon for us, barring domain/conceptual conflicts, or an amazing study specimen for Suyin.

Hope our deeds of turning the entire area around was spread, the prestige is something I think Qi deserves after what she just went through.

yrsillar said:
[] Ripples (Cai Renxiang)
[] Shockwaves (Su Ling)
[] Churning (Gu Xiulan)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Mmmmmm, Ren is my fav but she has had a lot of attention. Immediate thought is Xiulan, because I really want to see her reactions to what almost happened to Qi, but I've also been dying to check up on Su Ling after her triple breakthrough crit.
 
What if that giant limb from icebreaker peak was the same kind of thing as the sludgy shoggoth that one rat-dude used back in the deep cavern fight? It was eating up qi and bodies like crazy, and rapidly growing stronger.

Might be something needing dismemberment if it got on someone.
 
[X] Ripples (Cai Renxiang)
[X] Churning (Gu Xiulan)

storryeater said:
We anime protagonist now.

On another note, since the vote won't be on for 1 and a half hour, and my story seems to be judged an apocrypha with some finality, where do you think I should put my point? I do not like holding on to omake points because I am reasonably certain I'll forget about'em
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I will get back to you on this matter when I'm not busy
 
Alectai said:
Remember, there's a major opening to Gnawing One Territory over on White Cloud Mountain, I'd be surprised if the Outer Sect didn't just have a Thunderdome from the residents there that Su Ling might have just played a key role in.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I am pretty sure it's close enough to inner sect territory that Elder Ying/inner sects disciples were more likely to be there.

Like, yeah, there are apparently 'shockwaves', but I doubt it was those kinds.

[X] Churning (Gu Xiulan)

Because we aren't likely to be seeing much of Su Ling for the next 5 or so turns, and I want to see how Xiulan took the whole thing.
 
[X] Churning (Gu Xiulan)
[X] Shockwaves (Su Ling)

Torn between two of my favorite characters in the entire quest.
So I choose both.
If Han Jian was an option too, I wouldn't know just what to do.
 
ChronOblivion said:
Immediate thought is Xiulan, because I really want to see her reactions to what almost happened to Qi,
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Honestly I figure her interlude would be along the lines of: Crazy lowborn friend took a life threatening wound because they didn't think I was strong enough. Sister had to save me because I wasn't strong enough to repel 2 giant beasts. Sister had to save crazy friend because I wasn't strong enough to learn the technique to cure her. MUST GET STRONGER!!!!!

Completely disregarding the stellar job she did defending the town while we were gone.
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top