NPF Avatars IV, Chapter III: The Sphinx on the Doorstep

[Skyshot]

Skyshot wisely dove away from the tree he had been standing nearby and took up Nightstorm.

"Not cool..." One of the dryads was heading for him. "Cause critic."

Large wounds burst open over his target, causing it to scream and retreat into the nearest tree. Skyshot let out a sigh of relief and watched for more, but after a few seconds, it burst out of the tree and started coming after him.

"NOT COOL!" He shifted Nightstorm into a quarterstaff grip and swung it like a bat, hitting the dryad across the cheek. He continued to hold it off, backing away, making quick jabs into traditionally sensitive areas, and working to stay away from those claws. It wasn't easy.

Abruptly, he felt a shooting pain across his back. He reflexively dove to the side and spun around. A second one had been behind him, now sporting bloody claws. Very bad.

The one he had been fighting dove for him. Immediately, he ducked and swept his legs, knocking the dryad off its feet. He quickly drove Nightstorm's tip into its throat as hard as he could before the second dryad moved toward him. He stepped forward on an impulse, but wasn't able to get the staff positioned before it slashed his belly, knocking him backwards onto the very irritated dryad he had just attempted to choke. Feeling its claws rake at his chest, he flailed his arms to block and rolled back.

"Little help?!" he yelled out, swinging Nightstorm to awkwardly deflect another swipe.

[Fenris]

"Oh shit!" Fenris exclaimed. He quickly counted the number of dryads.

'Shit, looks like I have to fight,' Fenris thought.

'You're fucked.'

"Now is not the time for that!" Fenris yelled, clutching his skull.

'Quit yer whinin' and kill something. I'm bored.'

Fenris blinked a couple times. And stood back up, only to get clawed in the face rather viciously by a dryad.

Fenris screamed. He whipped out his hammer and started flailing at his assailant, stony blood dripping down his face and freezing around his eyes.

'Calm down, calm down, calm down, happy thoughts, happy thoughts, oh god I'm gonna die.'

'That worked."

'Will you just leave him alone?!'

Fenris took about 7 deep breaths while the Dryad retreated to a tree, healed, and flew out again. Fenris picked up his mallet. He looked at the quickly approaching dryad. He waited, waited, waited, waited, and just as the dryad came to attack, he slammed his hammer into the outstretched claws of the dryad. They, being rather thin, snapped under the pressure. The dryad screamed, but Fenris brought his hammer up into the jaw of the dryad. The dryad pulled her other claw back, and stabbed Fenris in the chest, narrowly missing his heart. Fenris coughed up blood as the Dryad pulled her claws out of his chest. His blood looked scarily like mercury, as it adopted a grey hue. Fenris clutched his chest, the silvery liquid dripping between his fingers, and hacked up more blood. All was silent, even the mysterious voices in his head. Fenris's grip on his mallet started to slide, as all started to fade around him, the Dryad retreated to heal in the tree.

[Bailey]

Not being attacked at the moment, and seeing Skyshot being overwhelmed, Syttulg dropped to a crouch, his hands brushing against the ground, his nannites doubling the length of his fingers with the addition of steel spikes, then rose and dove for one of the dryads fighting Skyshot, attempting to impale her face.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Hmph. That oug-" Phoenix began to remark, as she powered up her Vibro-Katana, it's hum ringing through the petrified forest. She'd hoped putting three to four trees between herself and the dryad might make it difficult for the latter to charge straight at her... But as the fae burst through the trees as if they were not there, Phoenix was rather taken aback.

Another claw, longer this time, made a quick thrust at her, but was quickly caught as Phoenix slid her vibroblade through it's fingers, the weapon's engine whining as it attempted to power it's way through the formidible stone.

Magic stone. Any other stone would be cut like butter.

The dryad reared it's other claw back, making to impale Phoenix's head while her sword were trapped, but a quick wristroll pivoted the weapon and brought the hilt to intercept, at no small cost to Phoenix's fingers. No matter, at least losing a finger wasn't as lethal as losing one's head. It did hurt, however.

Sword freed now, Phoenix made a wide cut at the Dryad, lunging after it as it attempted to escape, only to find that it had fled through a tree.

*BZzzzrrrKzzrrt!* The vibroblade whined as it bit deeply into the stone-tree and began, by it's own volition, to work itself deeper into the petrified trunk.

"This is a very bad day." Phoenix sighed sarcastically, letting go of the trapped weapon and taking a moment to look at her hand, which had now become partly... Stonelike. Not enough to lose it's flesh, but enough to be grey and have a noticable lack of finesse. "A very, very bad day indeed."

[Mesden]

Amazingly, Mesia wasn't autoattacked by however many dryads there were like everyone else, because she wasn't so damn hasty as to walk into a forest before Soul Scanning it.

"No no no! Everyone RUSH in. Don't let the goddess get a good look around. I mean, that'd just be sensible so of COURSE it couldn't happen."

After she vented in her own head for a moment, Mesia walked out and approached one of the Dryads hidden in the chaos struck vegetation. With a steady sigh, she did nothing more than stand steadfast in front of it.

Fast and deadly came the claws, piercing towards Mesia's chest, only to miss their 'lethal' target, from what bit of a dodge Mesia could muster, and strike into her shoulder.

As the Dryad emerged from its stone engraved sanctuary, its other claw struck forward, aimed towards the lower belly of the Goddess. A small shift of the weight over only allowed it to strike her upper thigh.

The creature's eyes stayed locked to Mesia's, a dull blue showing no sign of any feelings. No fear. No pain. Nothing. But it was not the same for the assailant. There was a pleased, nearly sadistic smirk spelled across its face. A near bloodthirsty and thriving gaze that tried to pierce through the clouded azure Mesia donned.

And slowly, her body began to crack and harden where the attacks had struck, the petrification all as much lethal to Mesia as any other. The Dryad could feel itself slowly reverting as well, that smile becoming all the more pleased, all the more fulfilled.

But that smile was ripped away as Mesia's hand struck out to the creature's neck. The crimson metal gauntlet clenched the throat tightly, digging the white claws into the rockhard flesh.

From this vicelike hold emanated a soft, white glow that began to spread slowly across the Dryad. Every second that passed, the being could feel itself growing...tired and weak.

"I shall break your soul before you break my body." Her voice was content and her eyes sparked. That former, listless blue being replaced with a convicted white blaze that seemed to pierce all dark and dim.

((OOC: Well, Arhra, I'm gonna leave it in your hands how far petrified I get before I completely shatter the Dryad's soul. Everyone else can take on two and whatnot, I'll just dramatically tear this one apart from within!))

((And it is decided))

Through her effort, Mesia couldn't break the creatures soul before it could solidify her body.

There stood the statue of a Goddess.

[Dragonsbane]

Razored claws ripped right out of a stone tree trunk, tearing out one of Dragonsbane's eyes and gashing his face horribly. He stumbled back, clutching his ruined visage as blood trickled between his fingers.

The attacking Dryad shrieked in triumph, believing she had won, unaware of the words he whispered, disguised under the cover of his ragged, near-sobbing breaths, or the way that the gore coating her claws was sinking into her skin. Dragonsbane could see that she was covered in a stony armor, and doubted she would give him time to cast any more spells...he had to make this count.

"Stone to Flesh..." the spell was unusual, enhanced, and entwined with the one that had sank his blood directly into her body. Even as he began to petrify, the process reversed itself, his face greying...then returning to normal as a new eye began to grow in, while the Dryad's hand slowly turned pink.

[mauve]

"...the hell is this?!??!" yelped the Mauve one as the tree beside her suddenly made a lunge for her head. It's aim was a bit off; Mauve ended up on her butt while the dryad was left with nothing but a large pink mage's hat in her fists.

Mauve did the one thing she could do. She flung the glowly slug thing at the dryad. It stuck to the creature's face with a wet shluck.

"Ha!" Mauve cackled. "How'd you like tha-- Oh."

The unfortunate slug was swiftly losing its luminescent quality. With a sickening series of cracks, like eggshells being stomped into the ground, the slug turned a stony gray and shattered into a hundred little slug bits. The dryad beneath did not appear amused.

"Ah." Mauve said. "Well, crap."

The next thing she knew, the dryad was rushing towards her with extended claws. Mauve let herself fall back as the dryad pounced, kicking the stone woman in the gut and making her fly over the mage's head. Well, that's what was SUPPOSED to happen. Basically, what DID happen was that Mauve ended up on the floor, the dryad threw herself at her, Mauve kicked her in the gut--- And Mauve realized that kicking stone didn't do much aside from really, REALLY hurting her foot. The dryad didn't soar over Mauve's head from her own momentum, as expected, but instead sort of flopped over sideways, just a foot or so to Mauve's left, while sinking her claws into the mage's left wrist and shoulder and tore through her skin like it was tissue paper. Had Mauve been thinking clearly at this point, she may have thought, Oh good, her claws missed my throat, where they were aiming. Instead, she was thinking something along the lines of SHIT SHIT SHIT OH HELL THAT HURTS OH SHIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT! and so on.

The dryad recovered faster than the mage and was back on her feet while the Mauve one was still cursing. The creature bore down on her, eager to finish her off and move on to the next victim. At the last moment, Mauve shoved both hands out towards the dryad's face. Strangely, only her right hand seemed to respond correctly. Mauve didn't have time to contemplate this right now, though.

"Blizzaga!" she snarled, and the dryad's head and shoulders were encased in ice. This sudden change in weight threw off the dryad's balance and she crashed backwards into the ground.

"Blizzaga!!" Mauve yelled again in an attempt to freeze the creature to the ground. Now that both hands were extended towards the ground in front of her, Mauve noticed that the bleeding arm was covered in ribbons of grey. The blood in her veins was turning into stone. The shredded ribbons of skin were doing the same, and the patches of granite-like flesh were spreading at a disturbingly rapid rate. Already her hand was becoming harder to control. Oh no.

She had to kill this thing. Once it was dead, Mauve would hopefully be restored to her normal state, or at least be able to get some kind of healing spell. But how do you kill a stone dryad?? Wait. How do you kill ANY kind of dryad? The answer came from somewhere within her memory; from some book of Greek myths that she must have read back in high school. She was pretty sure that wood dryads died when their trees were cut down. Would stone dryads have the same weakness?

It was worth a try. All she had to do was get back to the tree that her dryad came out of and find some way to destroy it. Maybe trick the dryad into stabbing it with her claws, or maybe toppling with an earthquake spell, as Skyshot had earlier suggested.

She hugged her arm to her chest and ran for it. Almost immediately, a nearby tree thumped her on the skull with a branch. Mauve saw stars, and then she saw the floor.

Her arm wouldn't respond. Her back and neck felt frighteningly stiff. The dryad was recovering from being frozen to the floor, and she didn't look happy. Around her, members of the NPF were already being turned to stone. Fenris and Mesden were now statues. And Mauve was about to be the next addition to the collection.

"Somebody help?" she managed to say despite the massive headache and the stiffness that was slowly spreading to her jaw.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

"Fu-urk!" Rhiya's impolite cry ended in a small gurgle as a dryad slammed headfirst into her stomach, knocking the breath out of her. The stone-worked fae slammed her claws into the unresisting flesh of her victim, and tore out Rhiya's spine. The light faded from the winged woman's eyes as she slumped down lifelessly, her body petrifying in the dryad's grasp.

Oh GAWD that hurt like hell, Sub-Rhiya rubbed where her spine had been torn out. She waited a moment, looked at her watch, and looked at the dryad calmly turning towards her next victim.

I'm coming back to finish you, biatch, she said vehemently. The dryad - surprise surprise - didn't hear her.

~~~

Five seconds later, a violently swearing Rhiya crashed down into her respawn point a few yards from the sphinx. The creature took one look at the disheveled woman and decided not to make her take another Riddle. Rhiya gave it to the creature anyway.

"Rock! Now shutup."

She was a blur in the next few moments as she raced to get back to where the others are, in a highly pissed-off mood. Yes, the RFS was still working.

It was currently making a small whistling noise and steaming at the top.

~~

"KILL ME WILL YA, YOU BITCH!" Rhiya screamed as she leapt - dragon form - onto the dryad who had turned and was just about to attack Mauve. All four claws from the chaos-diamond dragon hit hard and fast, finding purchase on the stone dryad's body and toppling them both over.

Rhiya, full of screaming fury and eyes glowing bright red, grabbed the dryad's shoulders with two paws and slammed her head down viciously. The dryad's head cracked painfully against the earth, bouncing off from the force Rhiya exerted, before it happened again.

Rhiya was using the time-old belief that Diamond was essentially much stronger than rock. However, what Rhiya didn't realise that while her chaotic composition granted her temporary immunity to the dryad's stony petrification ability, it's starting to wear away that as the chaos molecules inside Rhiya gradually absorbed more and more of the petrification curse.

But the Dryad didn't like her predicament. On the third time her head cracked against the floor and sent hairline fractures coursing up the back of her skull, the creature attempted to escape Rhiya's furious head-banging. Her feet feeling rather free, the Dryad planted them thusly on the base of Rhiya's spiky tail and kicked.

A surprised Rhiya flipped over with the force of the strike and crashed heavily down. With frightening speed, the dryad rolled to her feet, staggered for a moment, before fleeing into a nearby tree.

Still fuming, Rhiya got to all fours and snarled at the tree - which subsequently sent a hail of stony acorns at the dragon. It bounced harmlessly off her draconic diamond hide, and served only to make Rhiya even more angry.

Then she saw Mauve getting thumped by the same tree.

The RFS themometer exploded into small fragments of glass, before reforming - only now, the liquid inside was black.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING HIT HER YOU [blank: something to do with a rooster and a cat getting wet]!!!!!" Rhiya roared, and one of the petrified trees trembled and screamed in pain as part of itself was vaporised.

Rhiya's eyes were bleeding and boiling black and red. Her draconic face was fixed in a permanent snarl so rigid that the diamond in her almost cracked with the effort.

With a single, fluid movement, Rhiya drew up - grew a few feet, even - and charged with a roar that deafened the nearby allies and enemies.

The dragon leapt nimbly over the fallen Mauve and ploughed into the petrified tree, throwing her entire weight like a massive wrecking ball that had just broken its chain and decided it likes to go for a little spin. With a shuddering shriek, the tree fractured at its base and toppled, the dryad within.

She wasn't done though. Before the dryad could escape from her stony fortress, Rhiya's ever-growing hind-foot came crashing down, smashing the base of the tree into tine stone fragments. Her other limbs came down after that, growing in size as Rhiya expanded to a size that allowed her to grind the large tree into rubble.

Out of the fragments of tree, Rhiya was satisfied to note broken bits of arms and legs and a shocked, stony face.

Rhiya suddenly felt very tired. She looked down, and realised part of herself was very gradually becoming the stone she had shattered moments before. Dryads - infuriated at the loss of one of their kind - were darting in and out of trees nearby and striking her, conveying their stony curse onto her gradually - while turning them more flesh-like.

Rhiya got an idea. Slowly, painfully, she lumbered over to where Mauve lay and encircled the mage with her bulk. She plucked the stoned goddess from where she stood and placed her with Mauve, before covering them with a petrified wing, shielding them from further attacks made by the warped dryads.

While more of the dryads looked more flesh-woven, Rhiya closed her eyes... and became stone.

[OOC: have fun recovering inside, Mauve]

[GARUD]

A blade of Chaos soared over and smashed a tree. And it got stuck. Another blade sunk into the thick trunk of the tree. It had a decent cut, and now it needed to be deepened. Garud needed to try topple it.

"Aren't you a tough little bugger. Better to try kill the tree and even up the odds."

The demon slayer had yet to see the Dryad with his name on it, but it was around. Somewhere. Garud ran in circles around the wood until it had chains tied around it. And he pulled. The demon slayer pulled with all his might trying to topple the flailing plant.

"C'MON! C'MON! MOVE YA BASTARD!"

As he tried to take the tree down, a figure crept up behind him... and lunged with a screech. Garud stepped to the side hastily, ad the Dryad smashed into the tree. A gaping hole opened up, and the demon slayer tugged as hard as he could. The tree fell beside Garud, who was sweating furiously.

"Oww... what the? My hip is not... uggh."

Garud's hip area was turning to stone. The Dryad must have gotten him after all, and it was getting back up for more.

"Shit."

Creating a shadow potion, the acid decay was able to hold off the stoning, but he couldn't use the acid to cure it and fend off an onslaught at the same time.

"Okay ass. Try catch me."

Garud ran along but he was losing his flexibility due to his hip. He tried to gather anough shadow for more potions, but he was fading quick. Garud looked over and saw Mesden, Mauve and Rhiya, and it seemed Mauve was the only one not completely encased in stone. The charging Dryad leapt and Garud ducked down to avoid it... just. Looking at his own stoned leg and arm, he used his other arm to use the potion... but not on himself. He threw it at the pink mage and yelled,

"Catch!"

The Dryad turned and lunged once more this time knocking Garud off his feet. Both rolled to their feet, and the demon slayer launched a beam at his opponents face. He was not going to last too long though...

[Tarrin]

Tarrin stood watching the battle unfurl around him,
"Behind you" the voice of his spirit guide whispered, Suddenly spines shot out of Tarrins back, Quills to be exact.
The dryad seamed to shift in mid leap, Twisting it's body around the newly grown defences of its target, Watching the attacker land to his right, Tarrins reaction wasn't fast enough to to stop what came next.

Two razor sharp claws raked across tarrins chest, Blood flowed freely from the newly opend wounds, "gargh" was the only noise Tarrin let out, His mind already searching for his attacker and a solution to rid himself of the vile thing.

A noise, Ever so faint, Yet enough for Tarrin to hear the direction his attacker was coming from,Found his ears, Swinging his quilled back towards the Dryads direction, This time however the move was an attack, Several foot long quills shot out towards the leaping attacker, The Dryad, Not ready for this turn of events found two of the spear like weapons catching it in the side, A loud shreek eminated from the vile fiend as it lept back into the trees.

Tarrin felt a preasure on his chest, No not on....in, Looking down he could see his chest turning from it's normal tanned flesh to a pale stone,
"Crap, This could be bad"no time for that right now however,
Tarrin new he only had a few seconds before either his petrification or the return of his attacker, Reaching once again through the veil he pulled his spear back into the physical relm.

A rush of wind was all that came this time, The Dryad lept directly down towards Tarrin claws extended, A Weapon of force and death hurling towards his position.
Tarrin stood there and at the last second rolled to his right, The Spirit lance however stayed where it was, The Dryads limp form lying at its base not a wound to be seen.
"At least they have souls" Was all tarrin got out before more of his form turned into stone, "Now how do i get my ass out of this situation?"