Tag Archives: Thermal Talent Set

Champions of Battle: AD7 – Awakening #23

The massive ratcoon ferociously raked and slashed at Oyintsa; and he kept on provoking it.  With its sheer size, its paws were easily as large as Oyintsa’s torso.  Oyintsa had long since fell over.  With one strong swipe from the ratcoon, it flung Oyintsa into the air headed deeper into the weeds.  He rolled into the brush some distance away before he could gain his bearings.

The ratcoon followed him.  It knew he wasn’t dead.  A few seconds, and the beast was on top of him again.  Biting, scratching, pouncing, it did whatever it could to beat Oyintsa.  As a response, Oyintsa put his hands in a practiced defensive posture to absorb the ratcoon’s attacks.

His thick plated armor protected him from the onslaught.  It was enchanted armor.  Over the years, enchanters and armor-smiths perfected methods of making armors like his; Sanity’s armor-smiths and enchanters were the best.  It was metal when he needed it to be and cloth at other times.  It also had a few surprises.

Occasionally, he could predict where the beast’s paw would land.  In those places, he produced small sharp spikes on his armor.  Upon attacking him, the beast would impale itself.  Instead of causing fear, the pain only made the beast angrier.  It tackled him again trying to cause whatever kind of damage it could.

Royal rejoined the battle following the loud blasts of Oyintsa’s combat shotguns.  Even in his odd position, he found ways to target and shoot the beast with the large barrels and unique ammunition.  Instead of metal pellets, Oyintsa used odd shaped scraps and needles as shot.  As a result his powerful blasts caused the beast enough pain to stay focused on him.  The ratcoon tried to finish him while Royal caused quite a bit of damage to its hind legs.

AD7 couldn’t see a thing!  She knew a lot was happening though.  She wanted to join in the battle as well.  She remembered having great advantages and being nearly invincible in combat.  She also remembered having complete knowledge of things in a battle, even things she couldn’t see directly.  These weeds were frustrating!

Instinctively, she started swinging the bags around.  If anything came out of the weeds, she would throw their weight at them.  She paused to think, then face-palmed realizing she was only holding bags of sandwiches.

Before long the beast was trying to crush Oyintsa.  It was putting all of its weight on him and jumping.  It yelped again as it pounced directly onto a barbed spike.

Royal’s jumping Hanja had faded back to black; it was usable again.  She used this perfect opportunity to cause fight ending damage.  She leapt at the ratcoon.  She took as much thermal power out of her frost blade and put it into her flame blade.

She landed on the ratcoon with a downward stab directly into its left hind leg.  The ratcoon howled as her burning blade sunk to the hilt.  She immediately withdrew it with a jump off of the beast.  The fire was extinguished badly burning target.

The fire blade was used.  However, with almost no thermal energy in it, her frost blade was most dangerous now.  Royal used the dash enchant on her other leg to rush the beast while it was still reeling from her first attack.  Less than a second after landing, Royal dashed through the weeds and slashed the inside of the beast’s other leg.

The blade was colder than ice.  As she cut, the beast’s blood froze.  The frozen slash was deep but the frozen wound didn’t bleed right away.  It sure did hurt though.

Still growling and swiping, the large ratcoon still had the will to fight but lacked the ability to move.  It was bleeding quite a bit from the horrible wounds.  It could no longer keep up with them or move without great pain.  Soon it realized that it could no longer fight.  So, it used its front legs as best it could to crawl back to its den.

Royal and Oyintsa seeing the battle was finished decided not to press the attack any further.  On the contrary, Royal performed several of her most powerful delayed heals on the beast as it retreated.  Their goal was not to hunt a ratcoon, only to travel safely.

By the time the travelers would get back to their ship, the damage they caused the ratcoon would be healed.  Unfortunately, this ratcoon would have very defining scars for a lifetime.  It was already showing signs of improved movement as it got up and limped slowly away.

It took a few minutes for them to get back on the path Oyintsa created earlier.  They signaled AD7 to follow and they all headed back to the ship.  “Well,” Oyintsa started.  He sounded normal though he was covered in the beast’s blood, “Now we know why the rats moved to town.”

The ladies nodded in agreement.

“The ship’s not far.  Best get going.”

#1 – Awakening #22 –Awakening #24

Champions of Battle: AD7 – Awakening #22

Somewhere on the Outskirts of Bosstown

AD7, Royal, and Oyintsa walk into the woods beyond Bosstown.  The depressing city ruins ended a few decameters back.  Nature had completely taken over these parts.  Tall grass and weeds flourished.  The occasional tree shot out of the ground shading the entire area.  Not even the roads were evident here.

As they fought through the weeds to gain ground, they walked over unnatural looking hills from time to time.  They were more like aged piles of rubble.  Each smelled of rust, rotting wood, and wild mushrooms.  There was quite a bit of red gravel underneath them as well; and roofing tiles all around them.

How could my beautiful city be overcome by nature so quickly?  AD7 tried to riddle it out; then face-palmed as she remembered again.  It’s been fifty years!  AD7 wanted to read about the details of her city’s decay but Royal had taken her handheld back a while ago.

Besides, Royal and Oyintsa seemed to be getting more aware of their surroundings.  They were cautious on how and where they stepped.  They moved quickly and quietly.  They made sure they gave every sound attention and could identify them.  With that, AD7 realized they were in the wild now.  There were many places for the wildlife to hide.

AD7 tried to do what they did.  However, it didn’t help that they were each holding five fragrant sandwiches designed to attract meat eaters.  She looked to the sky.  Through the weeds, several birds flew overhead.  The birds seemed uninterested but birds could change their minds at any time.

“Tracks,” Oyintsa stopped as he spoke.

AD7 stopped as well realizing that she was about to run into Royal.  She looked at the tracks.  There were several.  They were everywhere.  Each identical in shape, they looked like deformed hands, with claws.  Among the prominent large tracks were much smaller tracks.

“Ratcoons?” Royal asked.

“Ratcoons… with cubs,” he said the last words with a bit of enthusiasm.  Ratcoons were much like rats; only much larger, intelligent, and aggressive.  Unlike rats, they actually hunted live food as well as scavenged.  As with most animals, adults with cubs to feed and protect were much more dangerous.

Both Oyintsa and Royal shoved things into AD7’s hands.  Suddenly, AD7 found herself holding all of the sandwiches.

“Time to go,” Oyintsa said as he produces a long throwing blade from under his cape.  He throws it in the direction they were walking.  The blade gains power and speed as it mows down to weeds creating a path for them.  After about a meter into the weeds, it returns to Oyintsa.  At that, the three of them run down the path to get as far away as they can from the den.

AD7 didn’t know if they were in immediate danger.  Still, she knew when to follow the leader and did her best to keep up.  Warriors don’t run without good reason.

About halfway through the path he created, Oyintsa turns, points, and shouts, “Left!”  There was a short powerful gun in his hand.  He pointed it to the left and fired behind Royal who kept running passed him.  The sound was deafening.

After being in stasis for so long, AD7 was getting tired quickly.  She found new strength when Oyintsa yelled and even more energy when the beast screamed just to the left of her and stood.  It looked like an enormous brown rat more than four decimeters tall.  Black patches covered its eyes and large white stripes traced down its body.  She saw a fresh wound just beginning to bleed on its left front leg.

AD7 looks at Oyintsa.  He has already drawn another gun.  He flexes and roars.  Suddenly, his cloak expands and turns metallic.  It’s not long before he’s wearing thickly plated spiked armor still accented with his clan’s crest on the back.  His guns have gotten larger as well.  He fires them and reloads repeatedly as he charges the beast gaining all its attention.

Only after it starts attacking Oyintsa does Royal step in.  She pulls out two rather large swords from behind her cape.  AD7 immediately thought to herself.  Where exactly did those come from?  Did she have them this whole time?

There was no sign of them existing before now.  At the restaurant, Royal even sat on them with no sign of discomfort.  No matter if they truly came from nowhere, one of them spouted flames while the other was engulfed in frost flakes.

A Hanja on Royal’s leg glowed red then she leaps into action.  The impressive jump took her over the weeds and directly behind the beast.  As she landed, she turned and slashing downward with both swords.

Her cuts were clean and damaging.  Oyintsa’s attacks were annoying and painful.  But the ratcoon was much larger than them and very fast.  It was going to be a hard battle.

#1 – Awakening #21 – Awakening #23

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #11

Brisa had never expected to follow Jaquan and his crew all the way to Bear Gate.  The city had a very dangerous reputation; surrounded by dense dangerous woods; impossible to reach by air.  Only a relative few people knew how to get there.  Justice seemed to be one of them, but how?

She was surprised the BigBad Crew took the travel plans so well.  They were just going to walk through the woods.  That was crazy, even for a professional fighter.  They were going to that insane city to rest, oddly enough.  The tournament was even deeper in the woods!

Mr. Meng, the chief executive of The Champion’s Chronicle, wanted to do a story on the BigBad Crew for some reason.  He seemed to know that something especially interesting was going to happen.  He wanted to expose all of their secrets or something?  Brisa wasn’t sure.  She did know that to make an authentic story, someone would have to follow them wherever they went.

Not her.

Her job was getting the information to pass to the brave/foolish reporter.  She was supposed to get the information unnoticed, a relatively easy task.  It seemed she failed to do even that.

Of course, it was Duard Ban’s fault getting her trapped in all this mess.  That idiot always thought too much of himself.  Jaquan hated reporters.  Everyone, from the fans to the doorkeepers at the hotel, knew that Jaquan Zu hated reporters.  Still, he leaped at the assignment without thinking of her position in this.  He wasn’t scared of Jaquan.  He will be now.

He was bold enough to stand directly in front of Jaquan Zu, trying to get him to stop.  He got a good rib-crushing stomp in the chest for his troubles.  Now, he’s resting in the hospital.  As Duard’s errand girl, Brisa was the only person from Champion’s Chronicle near the scene.

She always wanted to be an ace reporter but never thought her chance would come like the, or be so short lived.  She watched her quarry load onto the shuttle, a large white box of a ship.  None of them wanted to see her again, their glances made sure she knew as much.

She watched each of them file into the shuttle one at a time.  Each of them scared her to death.  For the strangest reason, Neely scared her the most.  Not so much for what he did; but what he said or, how he said it.  His words bore into her consciousness.  Even now, she remembered power behind his words.

Just thinking of his words brought the entire torturous scene back.  The memory was more powerful than the experience.  The fire and frost seeping into her chest while floating helpless in the air.  She was unsure that she would ever forget.  There was no way she was going to follow them.  She wanted to write about safer things.

She was done.  The only thing left was to tell Mr. Meng of her utter failure and probably get fired.  Her hand slowly lifted her handheld to talking position while she carefully dialed the numbers for headquarters.  She wanted to get a good look at her boss perhaps for the last time.

Within moments, she was speaking with Mr. Meng.  A hologram of his torso and face appeared just above her handheld.  She saw a bit of scenery behind him too.  Apparently, he was sitting at his desk.  He was heavy set and sweaty.  His grey suit was quite disorganized with splotches of food condiments.  He had tan skin with thick golden tiger-like stripes all over his face and body.  Never mind his appearance; she knew his reaction to failure.  He yelled at Mr. Ban enough times, and that was for minor errors.  Could she go through with this?

She started slowly trying to sound strong in front of the one Crisho she desperately needed to impress.  She failed miserably.  “Th… they found me.  I don’t know how.  It was… it was horrible.  I thought th… they were going kill me,” Brisa was at the verge of tears by the time she finished.  As she heard herself talk, she realized that she really had no idea how they found her.  She was recording things on her handheld; there was a bright flash; then she was staring into the most frightening pair of eyes she had ever seen.

“Kid, listen to me,” Mr. Meng sounded strangely understanding, “they’re bluffing you.  Don’t fall for it.”  He spoke to her in a calm but firm tone.  “I know these tough guy types.  They put up a good front but when you get to know them, they’re a bunch of softies.”

He spoke like he had been there, but Brisa knew better.  The BigBad Crew was not bluffing, nor were they softies.  They knew who she was.  They knew why she was there.  If they saw her again, they would stop her from doing it.  “B…but.”

“No buts kid,” the chief executive almost started to sound frustrated.  He corrected himself immediately, “Our star reporter is out of commission because of this guy; Zu is hiding something, I know it; and you’re the only one we can tag on his trail right now,” his argument made a small amount of sense. “You want to be a news star, you need a big chance.  This is your big chance.  I’m not asking you to do anything dangerous.  All you have to do is follow him.  I’ll get a reporter to meet you at Bear Gate and you’ll come home.  It’ll be easy.  Just stay out of sight.”

That was easy enough.  All he was asking her to do was follow them.  The shuttle had no windows, there was no way they could see her.  All she had to do was stay out of sight for the shuttle ride to Bear Gate.  Once she was there, the new reporter team would be there, and she was done.  It was an easy job.  “Okay,” it seems a little too easy though, “I’ll do it.” This could be a bad idea.  Despite her doubts, she boarded the shuttle.

—–

The BigBad Crew rested in their private cabin on the shuttle.  They had their own aircraft but Justice insisted they travel like this.  No worries.  Jaquan only had to sign a few autographs for the fans and then ask to be left alone.  The fans knew to give him his space.  Justice filled Jaquan and Liana in on the details of the city and made reservations for their trip.

Catlin sat on a couch right next to Neely and rested on him while he read.  Neely didn’t mind her head on his shoulder.  They had been good friends for a long while now.  Also, with her close to him there was little chance for her to turn wild.  Sometimes it happened while she slept.

Catlin’s Thermal and Motion talents were very active even while she rested.  They were amplified by her Unholy talents.  Each person had a heat signature that moved with them.   Using this skill, she watched all the passengers and crew on the shuttle for a while.  However, she was tired from enchanting the huge jug of healing water for Neely and the activities afterwards on the shuttle pad.

Catlin was on the verge of falling asleep when she noticed a particular heat signature moving towards the back of the shuttle.  This one was altered slightly; it had a unique pulsing signature that only someone using the Thermal and Motion Talents could place.  It also had the shape of a bow-tie.  She spoke just loud enough for Neely to hear, “Brisa Gan from the Champion’s Chronicle is following us.”  She decided to sleep anyway.

“Oh well,” was his simple response.

#1 – Opportunity #10 – Opportunity #12