Skadi had survived a great deal in her relatively short life. Happy moments were sparse, and hard times plentiful. This entire experience, from the moment she had been... attacked in the palace, had been the most dramatic change of pace in her entire life. To say she had been a recluse would be a massive understatement. She rarely ever left the palace and, even when she did, it was a small affair in which she tried to draw as little attention as possible. Her sister had always told her it was for her own protection, and Skadi believed her. Assassination had been a constant threat, via direct means or indirect. The thought of poisoned food sent chills down her spine now, snapping her back to reality as she struggled to keep pace with Gidian.
She almost wished she could go back to her distracted musings, but now that she’d been drawn out she was forced to confront a new horror, one which she thought she’d be better prepared for after the packed confines of the arena and its denizens. But she wasn't. The roar of the crowd only got louder. And louder. And louder. Then it was practically shaking the ground under her feet and the walls around her, the flames of the torches dancing in tune as the crowd stomped their feet in unison. Her mind went back to when she'd first arrived, the hordes closing in on her and grabbing at her, and she gulped despite herself.
How many people would she see on the other side of that gate? She had never been a people person. She'd barely been around people. She'd never been among large groups and she'd never been the center of attention. A shiver went down her spine, her face paled, and she couldn't keep her hands still. Even worse, she didn't think she'd be able to keep her meal down…
The big gates, built to allow for creatures much bigger than what was passing now, began to rumble as it was raised steadily. She closed her eyes and tried to compose herself, but when she opened them she found everyone else had stepped forward already, and she had to rush to keep up. She almost tripped on her own feet. Shaking her head, she made a point to focus on the arena ahead and not the crowd. Anything but the crowd. She didn't even hear the announcer as he declared their fate.
But she did hear the other big gate rumbling, and her heart dropped as she saw the warriors approaching them. We're dead. She stared with a grim fascination at the Dwarven machinery and crude furs working in tandem, creating a feel that was both advanced and powerful, yet at the same time appealing to something more… primal. Especially the spider. She'd never seen anything like this in her life, and the only reason her jaw didn't drop in her wide eyed horror was because she was too busy clenching it, her expression almost frozen while faced with the terrors of these new mechanical monsters and that of the crowd.
She saw the Boar reaching for a spear, and her mind dimly registered that she should move. But she couldn't. She tried to will her muscles to move, tried to get out of the way, but her body remained locked in place, rational thought far gone.
But she didn't have to. Gidian grabbed her and pulled her out of the way to safety. She had seen him fight. Many times. He'd had to deal with countless would be assassins, betrayers, and all of that like during his stay in the Palace. She had never seen him lose, never as much as come close to it. She had been terrified of him. But surely now, he would get her out of this alive? And he'd have help from…
Everyone else. Everyone else who had just ran in different directions. But not Maere, Maere had stayed. And Dolun… who was running away now. But Gidian could do this… he had to…
But he wasn't. Her hopes had lifted at first, when he'd seemed to have the upper hand, but the Boar wouldn't die, and the Spider was fast. It started looking pretty clear that he was going to lose… but she couldn’t bring herself to move. Until, finally, he came crashing back to the sand, unable to stand up again. Maere looked at Skadi, and she looked back. Skadi’s expression was one of numb shock and absolute disbelief. And then Maere ran to Gidian, and Skadi found the strength to follow. Somehow.
Maere assessed the damage and futilely tried to cut the webbing but gave up after a glance in the Boar’s direction. She then looked at Skadi, trying to get her attention. "Spero!" Skadi didn’t register that she meant her at first. She had forgotten that she was supposed to be Spero, and not Skadi. She pulled out a potion of some sort and passed it to Skadi, after saying words that Skadi didn’t really absorb, but nodded anyways. She could guess from the gestures that she meant Skadi to give it to Gidian. But if I’m giving him the potion…
She connected the dots as Maere began to get to her feet, and seemed to be gathering herself for something. Skadi’s eyes opened wide in alarm, and she reached out to grab Maere’s wrist. “Don’t.” was all she could muster, barely audible over the roaring of the crowd. But she pulled away to face her death.
She looked at Gidian then, who was still mumbling. She looked at the vial. Then back at Gidian. She tried to get him to drink it several times, trying to pour a little into his mouth (which he resisted), and even tried to force some down his throat with little success. It didn't help that the more he revived, the more he struggled. She looked up to see how Maere was fairing, risking her life to buy time. And the girl was definitely brave. But one look told Skadi that it wouldn’t last long. She glared back at Gidia, and yelled, “WAKE UP!” as loud as she could muster, starting to hit him in frustration, trying desperately to get him to drink. The. Damn. Potion!
And it was slow going, but he did drink it. Most of it. He recovered, grabbed her by the throat, and threw her to the side like she didn’t weigh anything as he came roaring to life from whatever nightmare he has been trapped in.
Not a moment too soon, either. He was just in time, thankfully, to save Maere. Although it certainly sounded like it had hurt, as she ran as fast as she could to help Maere. Although she didn’t know what exactly she could do to help. As she approached, she could see Maere smiling softly. It was a new look for her, for it wasn’t necessarily a smile because she was happy, nor did the smile reach her eyes. No, it was the sort a monster would wear in one of her books as it smelled fear in its opponent. The best word she could think of to describe it was predatory. “Spero, we need to take advantage of this.” Maere called out, standing up straight as she looked back to Skadi, who was looking at Maere confused. She pointed to the tangled boar before them, and spoke again. “We might not get another chance like this. Let’s see if we can find a soft spot in that armor. If we can exploit it, maybe we can make this a somewhat even fight.” Skadi at first didn’t register what she was saying, and then didn’t really believe it after she’d processed it. The Boar was still dangerous, even knocked down. It would only take one swipe from him, or one unlucky kick, and it would shatter their bones.
But, as Maere stalked closer to it, Skadi fell in with her, following the girl’s lead. She sensed that their best chance of survival would be to stick together, even if she didn’t entirely feel confident in the idea. In fact, it seemed like a rather stupid idea to her.
‘Remember the next time you ridicule us that stupidity is only a few steps from courage.’ she shivered at the memory as her harsh evaluations came back to haunt her. The irony left a bitter taste in her mouth, and a slight feeling of shame as perspective tends to do.
Maere and Skadi watched the Boar struggle for a few moments, before they spotted an opportunity and exploited it. They wrapped the webs even more thoroughly around his arms, and then his head, until they were sure there he wasn’t going anywhere fast. Most of the threat neutralized, Maere began examining the Boar for a weakness, but Skadi saw what was happening to Gidian. Inwardly, as her attitude was shifting and she was finally acclimating, she cursed. Gidian had managed to end up on the losing end against the Spider. Maere looked at her, then Skadi pointed, and Maere was off again to, once again, save Gidian while Skadi stayed behind to try and tried to find a weak spot in the Boar’s armor.
It didn’t actually take long. She identified the eyes, small portions of the neck, the joints, and especially the armpits as soft spots. The armor was thick however, and so reaching the eyes would be difficult (though the Boar payed for this with extremely limited vision). Gidian had already tried to kill him via the neck and that hadn’t worked, so she didn’t imagine most of the joints would go any better. The armpits however were possible, though trying to reach them would most likely result in death. When Maere returned, she could offer nothing.
And then things got worse. Skadi watched at first in morbid fascination, and then shock and horror as the armor began to open itself like a shell, forcing the webbing apart and freeing the man inside. Maere tried desperately to stop it, but was merely shoved away as the man jumped to his feet and hurled one of his monstrous spears, which Maere was thankfully able to dodge… but Skadi quickly realized he hadn’t been aiming for Maere. “LOOK OUT!” she shouted as loud as she could, hoping Gidian could hear her over the crowd.
The feeling of relief when he did was almost indescribable, as she found she had been holding her breath, seeing the spear fly in almost slow motion. But she quickly realized they were out of the house fire, only to run into a forest fire. Gidian could only do so much against the Boar as they ran to help, but Maere had forgotten about the Spider, who knocked Skadi away with minimal effort as she closed in. Then things went from a forest fire to an inferno as Skadi saw the Spider uncork and drink a potion, her already frail hopes starting to completely diminish.
Gidian somehow managed to turn the tables on the Boar, giving her a small degree of hope to latch onto, but neither Maere nor Skadi could prevent the Spider from interfering now. Skadi would have screamed if she could as she saw the web ignite in a sudden shower of electricity, the Spider herself sending wild tendrils in all directions, her entire body suddenly glowing with power. The sight was mostly menacing, but maybe it was a sign that Skadi had finally and truly lost it as she felt the urge to laugh at the woman's hair.
The feeling died as soon as the Boar took the web from the Spider and tossed Gidian clear across the ring, only to slam right into one of the others. As she and Maere ran back to the others to regroup, she began to go over what she had observed, trying to accomplish something. She'd noticed the Spider's mechanical limbs seemed to be somehow linked to her mind, as during her fight with Gidian she had started to fall into predictable patterns as fatigue and injury set in, and after she had received the concussions their operation seemed to stop altogether. She wasn't sure about the electricity now though… and the Boar had shed his shell, but apparently that didn't make much of a difference. He either had an enormously thick skull, or some other form of natural defense. Earlier his neck had received a rather thorough crushing and had no real effect. She'd assumed it was because of his armor, but now she wasn't so sure something else entirely was at work. And it didn't take a genius to guess it had something to do with the Dwarven Cores he had plugged into himself at several points on the weird remnants of his armor. The Spider's electricity and control over the extra limbs were probably also linked to a similar device.
But dismantling the cores wasn't exactly a great option, as getting close to either of the two would most likely end in death. Especially the Spider. But maybe there was a way… the webbing had held down the Boar before, and she'd turned off the electricity running through her web when the Boar had grabbed it to throw Gidian. So obviously she would have to be careful of friendly fire…
She was snapped out of her musing abruptly as she took in Gidian lying on the ground, Belzebub and Dolun (who had apparently been fighting together against the Ferrets and Wolf) finally driven back to the line, and their last compatriot standing with nothing but a molten shield. The good news was that he had at least disabled his opponents, for the time being if nothing else. As everyone prepared for round three, Skadi decided it was time to at least try and help. She'd finally managed to swallow her shock and now a fiery, albeit still somewhat timid determination remained. Survival was a good motivator.
She drew her two knives, tapping Baroth with one to get his attention. She gestured to the webbing still attached to Gidian, and then to the metallic Boar shell which still laid on the ground entangled, hoping Baroth would get the message. By now, verbal communication would be impossible for Skadi as her voice was far too quiet.
She just hoped Maere could get Gidian back on his feet. Although the circumstances had changed, he was still the only one who had experienced the duo's fighting styles, and had managed to at least begin to turn things around. Baroth's learning curve would be far, far steeper now. And so will mine, she realized, as for better or worse, they would need all the help they could get.
The Spider approached from one side, mechanical limbs all bared and crackling with electricity, as if trying to make herself look bigger and more intimidating. It worked, especially with the electric tendrils. By contact, the Spider's natural body was in a relaxed and sassy pose, one hand on her hip as she slowly approached.
The Boar matched her calm demeanor, and slowly they advanced together. Skadi looked behind her at the others, and realized they were standing in a rough circle around Maere and Gidian, with the Wolf approaching from the other side and the Ferrets tending to the Bat and Raven. She didn't know why they were still so confident, being reduced to a fighting team of three against Skadi and the others. But then she looked at the condition Belzebub and Dolun had been left in against the Wolf. Dolun especially looked like one's hand looks after it's been dragged through a knife drawer, only everywhere. Blood and sweat leaked down from his forehead and constantly obscured his left eye, which he was desperately trying to clear with a rag. Belzebub seemed to be in good shape though, so there was that.
It was then that Skadi realized turning her head away for so long had been a huge mistake.
She almost wished she could go back to her distracted musings, but now that she’d been drawn out she was forced to confront a new horror, one which she thought she’d be better prepared for after the packed confines of the arena and its denizens. But she wasn't. The roar of the crowd only got louder. And louder. And louder. Then it was practically shaking the ground under her feet and the walls around her, the flames of the torches dancing in tune as the crowd stomped their feet in unison. Her mind went back to when she'd first arrived, the hordes closing in on her and grabbing at her, and she gulped despite herself.
How many people would she see on the other side of that gate? She had never been a people person. She'd barely been around people. She'd never been among large groups and she'd never been the center of attention. A shiver went down her spine, her face paled, and she couldn't keep her hands still. Even worse, she didn't think she'd be able to keep her meal down…
The big gates, built to allow for creatures much bigger than what was passing now, began to rumble as it was raised steadily. She closed her eyes and tried to compose herself, but when she opened them she found everyone else had stepped forward already, and she had to rush to keep up. She almost tripped on her own feet. Shaking her head, she made a point to focus on the arena ahead and not the crowd. Anything but the crowd. She didn't even hear the announcer as he declared their fate.
But she did hear the other big gate rumbling, and her heart dropped as she saw the warriors approaching them. We're dead. She stared with a grim fascination at the Dwarven machinery and crude furs working in tandem, creating a feel that was both advanced and powerful, yet at the same time appealing to something more… primal. Especially the spider. She'd never seen anything like this in her life, and the only reason her jaw didn't drop in her wide eyed horror was because she was too busy clenching it, her expression almost frozen while faced with the terrors of these new mechanical monsters and that of the crowd.
She saw the Boar reaching for a spear, and her mind dimly registered that she should move. But she couldn't. She tried to will her muscles to move, tried to get out of the way, but her body remained locked in place, rational thought far gone.
But she didn't have to. Gidian grabbed her and pulled her out of the way to safety. She had seen him fight. Many times. He'd had to deal with countless would be assassins, betrayers, and all of that like during his stay in the Palace. She had never seen him lose, never as much as come close to it. She had been terrified of him. But surely now, he would get her out of this alive? And he'd have help from…
Everyone else. Everyone else who had just ran in different directions. But not Maere, Maere had stayed. And Dolun… who was running away now. But Gidian could do this… he had to…
But he wasn't. Her hopes had lifted at first, when he'd seemed to have the upper hand, but the Boar wouldn't die, and the Spider was fast. It started looking pretty clear that he was going to lose… but she couldn’t bring herself to move. Until, finally, he came crashing back to the sand, unable to stand up again. Maere looked at Skadi, and she looked back. Skadi’s expression was one of numb shock and absolute disbelief. And then Maere ran to Gidian, and Skadi found the strength to follow. Somehow.
Maere assessed the damage and futilely tried to cut the webbing but gave up after a glance in the Boar’s direction. She then looked at Skadi, trying to get her attention. "Spero!" Skadi didn’t register that she meant her at first. She had forgotten that she was supposed to be Spero, and not Skadi. She pulled out a potion of some sort and passed it to Skadi, after saying words that Skadi didn’t really absorb, but nodded anyways. She could guess from the gestures that she meant Skadi to give it to Gidian. But if I’m giving him the potion…
She connected the dots as Maere began to get to her feet, and seemed to be gathering herself for something. Skadi’s eyes opened wide in alarm, and she reached out to grab Maere’s wrist. “Don’t.” was all she could muster, barely audible over the roaring of the crowd. But she pulled away to face her death.
She looked at Gidian then, who was still mumbling. She looked at the vial. Then back at Gidian. She tried to get him to drink it several times, trying to pour a little into his mouth (which he resisted), and even tried to force some down his throat with little success. It didn't help that the more he revived, the more he struggled. She looked up to see how Maere was fairing, risking her life to buy time. And the girl was definitely brave. But one look told Skadi that it wouldn’t last long. She glared back at Gidia, and yelled, “WAKE UP!” as loud as she could muster, starting to hit him in frustration, trying desperately to get him to drink. The. Damn. Potion!
And it was slow going, but he did drink it. Most of it. He recovered, grabbed her by the throat, and threw her to the side like she didn’t weigh anything as he came roaring to life from whatever nightmare he has been trapped in.
Not a moment too soon, either. He was just in time, thankfully, to save Maere. Although it certainly sounded like it had hurt, as she ran as fast as she could to help Maere. Although she didn’t know what exactly she could do to help. As she approached, she could see Maere smiling softly. It was a new look for her, for it wasn’t necessarily a smile because she was happy, nor did the smile reach her eyes. No, it was the sort a monster would wear in one of her books as it smelled fear in its opponent. The best word she could think of to describe it was predatory. “Spero, we need to take advantage of this.” Maere called out, standing up straight as she looked back to Skadi, who was looking at Maere confused. She pointed to the tangled boar before them, and spoke again. “We might not get another chance like this. Let’s see if we can find a soft spot in that armor. If we can exploit it, maybe we can make this a somewhat even fight.” Skadi at first didn’t register what she was saying, and then didn’t really believe it after she’d processed it. The Boar was still dangerous, even knocked down. It would only take one swipe from him, or one unlucky kick, and it would shatter their bones.
But, as Maere stalked closer to it, Skadi fell in with her, following the girl’s lead. She sensed that their best chance of survival would be to stick together, even if she didn’t entirely feel confident in the idea. In fact, it seemed like a rather stupid idea to her.
‘Remember the next time you ridicule us that stupidity is only a few steps from courage.’ she shivered at the memory as her harsh evaluations came back to haunt her. The irony left a bitter taste in her mouth, and a slight feeling of shame as perspective tends to do.
Maere and Skadi watched the Boar struggle for a few moments, before they spotted an opportunity and exploited it. They wrapped the webs even more thoroughly around his arms, and then his head, until they were sure there he wasn’t going anywhere fast. Most of the threat neutralized, Maere began examining the Boar for a weakness, but Skadi saw what was happening to Gidian. Inwardly, as her attitude was shifting and she was finally acclimating, she cursed. Gidian had managed to end up on the losing end against the Spider. Maere looked at her, then Skadi pointed, and Maere was off again to, once again, save Gidian while Skadi stayed behind to try and tried to find a weak spot in the Boar’s armor.
It didn’t actually take long. She identified the eyes, small portions of the neck, the joints, and especially the armpits as soft spots. The armor was thick however, and so reaching the eyes would be difficult (though the Boar payed for this with extremely limited vision). Gidian had already tried to kill him via the neck and that hadn’t worked, so she didn’t imagine most of the joints would go any better. The armpits however were possible, though trying to reach them would most likely result in death. When Maere returned, she could offer nothing.
And then things got worse. Skadi watched at first in morbid fascination, and then shock and horror as the armor began to open itself like a shell, forcing the webbing apart and freeing the man inside. Maere tried desperately to stop it, but was merely shoved away as the man jumped to his feet and hurled one of his monstrous spears, which Maere was thankfully able to dodge… but Skadi quickly realized he hadn’t been aiming for Maere. “LOOK OUT!” she shouted as loud as she could, hoping Gidian could hear her over the crowd.
The feeling of relief when he did was almost indescribable, as she found she had been holding her breath, seeing the spear fly in almost slow motion. But she quickly realized they were out of the house fire, only to run into a forest fire. Gidian could only do so much against the Boar as they ran to help, but Maere had forgotten about the Spider, who knocked Skadi away with minimal effort as she closed in. Then things went from a forest fire to an inferno as Skadi saw the Spider uncork and drink a potion, her already frail hopes starting to completely diminish.
Gidian somehow managed to turn the tables on the Boar, giving her a small degree of hope to latch onto, but neither Maere nor Skadi could prevent the Spider from interfering now. Skadi would have screamed if she could as she saw the web ignite in a sudden shower of electricity, the Spider herself sending wild tendrils in all directions, her entire body suddenly glowing with power. The sight was mostly menacing, but maybe it was a sign that Skadi had finally and truly lost it as she felt the urge to laugh at the woman's hair.
The feeling died as soon as the Boar took the web from the Spider and tossed Gidian clear across the ring, only to slam right into one of the others. As she and Maere ran back to the others to regroup, she began to go over what she had observed, trying to accomplish something. She'd noticed the Spider's mechanical limbs seemed to be somehow linked to her mind, as during her fight with Gidian she had started to fall into predictable patterns as fatigue and injury set in, and after she had received the concussions their operation seemed to stop altogether. She wasn't sure about the electricity now though… and the Boar had shed his shell, but apparently that didn't make much of a difference. He either had an enormously thick skull, or some other form of natural defense. Earlier his neck had received a rather thorough crushing and had no real effect. She'd assumed it was because of his armor, but now she wasn't so sure something else entirely was at work. And it didn't take a genius to guess it had something to do with the Dwarven Cores he had plugged into himself at several points on the weird remnants of his armor. The Spider's electricity and control over the extra limbs were probably also linked to a similar device.
But dismantling the cores wasn't exactly a great option, as getting close to either of the two would most likely end in death. Especially the Spider. But maybe there was a way… the webbing had held down the Boar before, and she'd turned off the electricity running through her web when the Boar had grabbed it to throw Gidian. So obviously she would have to be careful of friendly fire…
She was snapped out of her musing abruptly as she took in Gidian lying on the ground, Belzebub and Dolun (who had apparently been fighting together against the Ferrets and Wolf) finally driven back to the line, and their last compatriot standing with nothing but a molten shield. The good news was that he had at least disabled his opponents, for the time being if nothing else. As everyone prepared for round three, Skadi decided it was time to at least try and help. She'd finally managed to swallow her shock and now a fiery, albeit still somewhat timid determination remained. Survival was a good motivator.
She drew her two knives, tapping Baroth with one to get his attention. She gestured to the webbing still attached to Gidian, and then to the metallic Boar shell which still laid on the ground entangled, hoping Baroth would get the message. By now, verbal communication would be impossible for Skadi as her voice was far too quiet.
She just hoped Maere could get Gidian back on his feet. Although the circumstances had changed, he was still the only one who had experienced the duo's fighting styles, and had managed to at least begin to turn things around. Baroth's learning curve would be far, far steeper now. And so will mine, she realized, as for better or worse, they would need all the help they could get.
The Spider approached from one side, mechanical limbs all bared and crackling with electricity, as if trying to make herself look bigger and more intimidating. It worked, especially with the electric tendrils. By contact, the Spider's natural body was in a relaxed and sassy pose, one hand on her hip as she slowly approached.
The Boar matched her calm demeanor, and slowly they advanced together. Skadi looked behind her at the others, and realized they were standing in a rough circle around Maere and Gidian, with the Wolf approaching from the other side and the Ferrets tending to the Bat and Raven. She didn't know why they were still so confident, being reduced to a fighting team of three against Skadi and the others. But then she looked at the condition Belzebub and Dolun had been left in against the Wolf. Dolun especially looked like one's hand looks after it's been dragged through a knife drawer, only everywhere. Blood and sweat leaked down from his forehead and constantly obscured his left eye, which he was desperately trying to clear with a rag. Belzebub seemed to be in good shape though, so there was that.
It was then that Skadi realized turning her head away for so long had been a huge mistake.
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