[OPEN] Knock, knock.

[zarkoff]

Who: Everyone who wants in!
What: Daybreak's forces come and take out some purple fools and rescue some friends.
When: December 6th
Where: Daibzaal. Galra Central Command in the Outlands
Warnings: Fighting! Vengenace?



The quest to figure out what exactly is happening with the string of disappearances and reappearances leads to a certain lycan clan in the Outlands. The Galra are an acient clan who have amassed a large territory over the years, and make it known in no uncertain terms that their nattles have one of two outcomes: victory or death.

Their stronghold, Daibzaal, is a large technologically advanced fortress deep in the Outlands, where the dim light of the sun doesn't do much to penetrate the aura of darkness. Then again, maybe that's just the aura of darkness that comes hand in hand with what remains of a certain necromancer's Grimm friends.

[ooc: feel free to post your own top levels and thread out whatever shenanigans you would like! the ones I posted are just for organizational purposes!]

Comments

[adjectiveprince]

Zagreus had felt it was very important to come here, though he wasn't sure why. It's not like he had ever met this Galra fellows before, had he? He was pretty sure he'd remember that. And yet...

The whole fortress looked familiar. Everything about this place looked familiar. He...He HAD been here before! There'd been a guy with a metal arm that he'd bashed in the face! And some weird robots! And, something with eyes...! Blood and darkness those eyes!

Zagreus' face went blank as he continued charging towards Daibzaal with the rest of the Daybreak crew, but beyond that there was absolutely no warning before he abruptly summoned a long, straight sword made out of darkness and swung it around in a backhanded swing towards the person directly to his right.

[fullthrottleammy]

[That would be when a cloud of mist descends over the area, clearing just as fast and revealing Amaterasu ready to block his strike with Solar Flare.]

I just want you to know, I hate that I have to do this.

[With that said, she pulls Zagreus into the air with her for a spinning pile-driver.]

[adjectiveprince]

I hate that you have to do this too!

[Zagreus didn't say, because he couldn't control his mouth right now, or any part of his body, for that matter. He watched with horrified impotence as he twisted and squirmed in Amaterasu's grip before getting slammed headfirst into the rocky ground. Ow. It really wasn't fair that he could still feel everything even when he couldn't control anything.

He knew he COULD beat full blooded gods, but it hadn't been easy the first time either. This time he didn't WANT to, though. But, despite his misgivings he had no say in the matter. The sword had flown out of his hand and vanished in a puff of darkness when she'd grabbed him, but quickly enough a spear took its place, also made of shadowstuff, which he swung around in a clumsy arc to hopefully keep her away until he could get his footing back, but it wasn't much of a swing. That he was still breathing after getting suplexed by a god was a credit to his sturdiness.]

[fullthrottleammy]

[That swing doesn't make it to Amaterasu as a whole entire tree springs to life between it and her. It does leave a gash in the bark though, which Amaterasu takes advantage of. A swift Power Slash and a tackle sends the tree falling towards the Demi-god without so much as a "Timber."]

[adjectiveprince]

[That unnerving blankness didn't leave his face has he swung an arm at the falling tree which suddenly had a shield on it. The bash sent the tree flying to one side, clearing the path between them so he could fling a blood-red crystal spike that was hidden somewhere on his person right into her general center of mass. If she didn't catch it, it would not just stab her but get stuck in the wound, and be incredibly painful to pull out.

Not a fatal or even particularly dangerous wound to a being of Amaterasu's power, but it certainly would be DISTRACTING.]

[fullthrottleammy]

[That same mist rolls in again, and the crystal goes flying out of it in a flash. Still, it can't gain her enough time to both deflect the crystal and readily pursue Zagreus.]

[adjectiveprince]

[Discretion is the better part of valor, sometimes. Like a computer, Zagreus' body had weight the variables and determined that he could do more damage by going after softer targets rather than trying to engage a god of a diametrically opposed power to his own. By the time she had dealt with the crystal, Zagreus had vanished into the chaos of battle somewhere.]

[silksoul]

Whoever he was aiming at, the sword doesn't get far. Hornet's needle clashes against it and stops it in its tracks; she locks herself behind it.

She doesn't spare words or breath, except to instruct others to go around them rather than stop. In a battle like this, every minute is vital.

Her expression is stony behind her mask. It says everything it needs to; if Zagreus doesn't stop, she has no problems stopping him.

[adjectiveprince]

[Neither of them spared words or breath. The moment Hornet's needle deflected Zagreus' sword, he fell into a fighter's crouch he'd learned in the buzzing hives of Hallownest, many many years ago. In his mind, Zagreus, is screaming. In reality, he is moving in for ruthless strike after ruthless strike. They're both incredibly mobile fighters, so its a confusing fight for anyone else to watch.]

[silksoul]

[ The moves are old. Hornet remembers them easily; she remembers being smaller, clumsier, holding some other practice weapon in her hands rather than the needle made just for her - she's training with it, but she's not quite to its size, and Vespa would rather she train with something more suitable to her height and weight than learn poorly with the weapon that will be with her for the rest of her life.

It's been a long time since they sparred together, since they fought. If it weren't for the battle raging around them both, it could almost be another day of training.

Zagreus has refined and improved his techniques; so has she. She locks her weapon against his over and over, taking advantage of her speed to continously change her position.

It's not just pointless movement and acrobatics, of course. She's spinning thread out as she goes, waiting for the moment she can pull it all in, pull it tight and snare him. But for now, she meets his weapon with her own, expressionless in her focus. ]

[adjectiveprince]

[She was faster, and lighter. Zagreus knew he could only win by keeping her in arms reach and using his superior physical strength. If she was able to dance around him too much he'd get caught.

Apparently the thing that was controlling him knew that too, for he found himself ruthlessly pursuing her, chopping through her threads whenever he could see them, though he was sure he was missing a lot of them.

Good. Maybe he would lose, and this waking nightmare could end.]

[silksoul]

[ There's no give in his techniques, no inch of restraint, no hesitation.

(When she was much younger, and her mother was still awake, she sometimes trained under the guidance of a man with long, blonde hair, dressed in a green cloak. He never said very much to her, but he commented that her cousin was too unlike his father to carry his duties.

"I suppose you two are alike, in that way," he had said. The words had stuck with her.)

He chops through her threads without hesitation. In response, she pulls the ones she has taut, aiming to entangle his feet and catch him off balance. If she can do that, she can trap his limbs, too. ]

[adjectiveprince]

[Zagreus' arms pinwheeled to catch his balance but with his feet entangled, that didn't really help. He went over into a heap. His facial expression had not moved a fraction of an inch.

He quickly rolled over to work on cutting himself loose before she could close in on him and finish him off.]

cw eye horror??

[silksoul]

[ He won't stop fighting, even when bound. Nothing in his expression has changed the slightest bit.

(Sleepwalking. Trapped in their own bodies, doomed to follow the call of another, not even allowed the peace of death.

She had cut those husks down where they stood.)

It doesn't take very long for her to make a decision, though she scolds herself for hesitating at all. Zagreus is not like other people, other outsiders; she knows what will happen to him, if he 'dies'.

She raises her needle, searching for the moment to strike. Her expression hardens the slightest bit, and she rams it into his eye without flinching. ]

[adjectiveprince]

[Zagreus brought his sword up to parry her strike, but wasn't QUITE fast enough. Almost like the true Zagreus within was trying to slow him down. The needle slammed into his face with a gout of red blood, rather than the golden ichor that ran through the veins of full blooded gods.

And for a split second, as Zagreus' brain is destroyed, the Galra's hold on him is also destroyed. His face contorts in pain, but somehow it feels more wholesome than the dead blankness that was there before. He coughed out a "How-" before collapsing, still to the ground.

A moment later, the ground itself turned into a whirlpool of blood, which sucked Zagreus' corpse back down into the deepest depths of Tartarus, where it belonged.

But he wasn't the kind of person to let something like that stop him. He'd be back.

Eventually.]