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

[PhoenixFlame]

Phoenix sighed at her helpless, still Kzzrt'ing Vibrokatana with a distraught gaze, while calling to mind page two of the Tactica Imperialis.

"A weapon is only as useful as the situation in which said weapon is employed. If a weapon cannot be employed, it will contribute to failure. Only through modification or unorthodox use of said weapon can victory be secured."

As they said, 41 millenia of constant war tended to make these people right, even if they were insane. Slipping her revolver out of her jacket with her unstoned left arm, Phoenix waited for her Dryad opponent to extricate itself from the tree it was hiding within. She slowly circled the tree, finding a similar, larger trunk of stone to hide behind.

And no, she wasn't hiding from the dryad.

Clicking the hammer back, Phoenix leaned around the larger tree with a triumphant, psychopathic grin. If this didn't work, she didn't know what would, and that Dryad was getting mighty annoying, what with cutting her fingers off and all. She'd wait, and slowly squeezed the trigger lovingly, waiting for it to show it's ugly, tormented face for merciful cleansing...

Then the Dryad burst out, seeing her in a moment of weakness, hiding behind a tree it could easily move through. It had suprised Phoenix with it's strange powers before, but today, she would suprise it with her strange weapons.

Yes, it would appear the Dryad had been in the ancient forest long enough to be ignorant to what a gun was.

*K-crack!* A massive muzzle flash accompanied the rocklet as it spun it's initial 45 degrees and deployed it's spring-loaded fins. Phoenix used her enhanced speed to duck fully behind the tree in the 1.21 miliseconds before the primary ignition went off, propelling the rocket at one-thousand feet per second into the Dryad's chest.

*B'Voom!* Came the explosion, showering smaller tree-parts past where Phoenix had been standing. She looked around her hiding place, and saw the rear half of the torso-deprived Dryad as it fled back into the forest.

Phoenix grinned. Things were beginning to look up.

[Arhra]

Arhra found herself beset by a swift and strong foe, flickering through the forest like a ghost. She decided to try and rely on her energy drain to save the day. Her current incarnation was suited for beating things up close and she knew her current stolen ability repertoire wasn't well equipped for hurting rocks.

Thus, when the dryad next jumped out at Arhra, it was slightly taken aback to find Arhra jumping right back at it. Crimson eyes met leaf green ones as the pair crashed together in midair.

Arhra began to wish she'd thought this through a little more when she found a claw entering her shoulder while her arms wrapped around to wrestle with the twisted fae. Regrets rapidly multiplied when the pair crashed to the ground, Arhra ending up on the bottom. Even with their slender builds, the dryads' stony bodies were very heavy.

Now, wrestling with a living rock is not the smartest thing to do, even if you have stolen enhanced physical might from someone. Arhra knew she was stronger than the average bear, but that strength wasn't really enough to hurt a rock being easily. But Arhra was relying on her trump card - the ability to drain life force off an enemy she was in physical contact with.

Unfortunately, she had been too busy to notice Mesden's similar problems with trying this kind of stunt. Her major trump card seemed to be one-upped by the dryad's touch. The two rolled about grappling on the ground, the dryad frantic about its life being agonisingly torn out of its body and Arhra discovering that she suddenly felt very heavy and inclined to crush puny organic life.

Making the mental connection as she felt the dryad's body softening and taking on a more fleshy appearance, the two exchanged a long look that basically stated a mutual unwillingness to see who died first. Arhra, currently on the bottom, being pressed into the ground by the dryad's lessening weight pushed up on leg and used the leverage to hurled the dryad off her. The half-unpetrified dryad, for its part, didn't resist this turn of events very hard, instead agilely twisting around in midair and vanishing into a tree trunk.

Arhra clambered to her feet, not really wanting to experiment with chaos magic in an attempt to neutralise the stony infection at this time. She'd be screwed if a spell focused around something like 'Soften' went wrong. Assessing the damage, the shoulder wound wasn't very severe and her minor regenerative powers (stolen) had taken care of the scratches the dryad had given her while they wrestled. Her skin felt tough, taking on a marble hue and she felt a general slowing of her movements. On the plus side, she felt that she'd managed to extract an appreciable portion of the dryad's essence. Looking around warily for another attack, Arhra tried to keep as far away from the trees as possible.

A draconic Rhiya then charged back into the fray, evidentally deciding that she was Godzilla and the forest was Tokyo. As she toppled a petrified tree and ground it into rubble, Arhra yelled, "Wooooo! Go Rhiya!"

Her encouragements stopped when she saw several dryads swarm Rhiya like a cat being swarmed by rats. While her diamond hide might be strong enough to turn a sword blow, it was no protection from the stony caress of the dryads. A large angry dragon became a large, dragon shaped rock.

"Oh, right... dragons are big targets. But we can still do this!" Arhra commented. After all, the dryads were not limitless in numbers and Rhiya had managed to kill one before getting taken out.

But now the dryads seemed to be at work crafting some new trickery. They held back as perhaps half a dozen sprouts of glowing green energy crawled vinelike over the rubble of the tree Rhiya had destroyed and threaded into the rocks. The entwined masses of rubble rose on crude legs, vague lumps of heads swinging to and fro as if looking around. The dryads working this magic vanished back into the trees, moving aorund to attack again. One of the larger piles, seemed to fix its gaze on Arhra and opened a rough maw lined with jagged shard-teeth, bellowing a silent roar as it began lumbering towards her.

All around, things were looking bad. Some of the NPF'er's numbers had been fully petrified, almost everyone looked to have some degree of stoniness to them and now these rubble-creatures looked to be entering the fray. Seemed the NPF'ers might fall in their first real battle.

Arhra decided there was only one sensible thing to do, "To me!" she yelled as she charged straight for the rocky monster pounding towards her. She saw a dryad leaping nimbly from tree to tree, planning to cut her off. The rubble monster swung one rough fist at her, but hurled her leaden body over the blow, letting it plow into the ground, and ran up its arm. The dryad shadowing her leapt off a tree branch, Arhra recognising her as the one she'd fought before by the branches woven into her hair, intent on finishing the job she'd had started. Arhra tore a rock off the back of the rock monster and lifted it just in time to knock aside the flinty claw it slashed at her. Rising and continuing the arc of her swing, Arhra bashed it in the face with the rock.

The dray hissed as she wiped sappy blood off its face, looking mostly flesh after having aided in petrifying Rhiya. "You won't find me so easy a second time." Arhra declared. A mouth then gaped in the jumbled rocks beneath her feet, seemingly intent on making her eat her words.

"Ah shazbot." Arhra decided to summarise her feelings towards this turn of events.

OOC: Yep, 'Mysterious Ability X' was the ability to create those rubble monsters.

[Steel Shadow]

Steel had been watchful, but the attack had surprised him. One of the dryads had jumped him from the side, apearing out of a tree. It grabbed his arm before he even thought to react. He had to resist the urge to rewind time, he didn't know enough yet. Instead he tried to shake it off. It's grip was solid. It drew back it's other arm to strike again.
"Fine" He muttered, rising into the air. The dryad lost it's balance, missing it's next attack, but it's grip remained solid. Steel clenched his teeth as it's claws began to cut into his arm. He sheilded his arm, stopping the pain, although it also trapped the drayads hand. Using that to steady itself, the drayad swung at him again. Steel tried to dodge, throwing it off a little, but his arm was still stuck in the sheild and he couldn't move far enough in time. It's claws scrapped through his side, sending pain shooting through him. He shook his head, trying to focus, but the pain was making it hard. His free hand found his sword. He drew it clumsily, his sword hand still trapped by the dryads grip and his own sheild. It knocked the blade from his grip with ease. He saw it spin away slowly in the corner of his eye. But his mind was focused on the enemy infront of him now. The pain had lessened now, replaced by a feeling of disturbing numbness. He watched it swing like a hawk, trying to anticipate it's next move. All the while they were rising higher and higher.
It kicked out at him, but he'd seen it coming and dodged it easily. Now they were near the peak of the glass dome above them. This was the best he was going to do. Quickly he swung up and kicked forward with both legs. At the same time he released the sheild around his arm. The impact, combined with the unexpected release of the sheild freed Steel of the dryads grip. They both fell for a moment before Steel resheilded beneth his feet. The dryad continued it's speedy descent, followed by an accelerating Steel. If it reached the trees before it reached the ground, it would probably survive. And Steel definatly didn't want that. He had to kill it before it got there. He was racing gravity. Fortunatly he could go faster than it could. Unfortunatly that meant being upside down. It wasn't pleasent looking up at the ground speeding towards you. Or looking down and seeing nothing but open sky.
The dryad smiled. It was almost to the trees. They seemed to rise up to meet it, promising whatever healing it needed after fighting that weak orange clown. It reached out to touch the closest stony branch. Then smashed into a barrier that hadn't been there a split second before. It shattered on impact, stone fragments going everywhere.
Steel righted himself, slowing himself down and pulling himself to a halt inches from the ground. He looked around. One down. He saw his sword pointing out of the ground nearby. He reached to pull it free, the stopped, looking at his arm. It was compleatly petrified. Remembering his side, he looked down. Stone apeared to be eating away at his stomach region. He looked back to his hand and flexed his fingeres. They were a little stiff, but ok. The sheild must have interupted whatever magic it had been using. even as he watched the tell-tale grey seemed to pull bac a little, exposing move pink flesh. It must have been fading from him after the dryads death. Still, not much time for that now, he thought, pulling his sword free. He looked about for the others. There were various sounds from the surrounding forrest, but no one in sight except a partialy frozen dryad. It was facing the other way, so it didn't see him. It was aparently focused on a large boulder infront of it. Steel glided over to it quietly and rammed his sword through it before it could free itself from the ice. It wasn't a fancy, graceful or even skillful move, but the fadding stone added alot of weight to the thrust, and the tip emerged out of the other side of the already weakened dryad. It slumped forward lifelesly, ripping the sword from Steels hand. He was suddenly very, very tired. The wound in his side began to hurt again as the petrification dispelled, and his sword arm arched from the claw wounds accross it. He tugged on his sword a few times before managing to pull it free, then looked around. He couldn't see anyone. He needed to rest. He sat down with his back to the big strangly shaped rock the dryad had been looking at, watching the forrest around him. He put a hand to his wound, hopeing to slow the blood flow down a little. He coughed, spraing blood in front of him. He'd been hurt worse than he'd thought.
"Uh.... anyone out there? I'm hurt kinda bad. Could really go for some healing." He coughed again. "Flare? Skyshot? Anyone?" He thought for a moment. Was he that desperate? He coughed again. Yes he was. "....Pyros?"

[Inbred Chocobo]

The dryad staring down Arhra was suddenly thrown to the side, looking to be wrestled by a flying orange blob. The dryad began rolling across the ground, and without it's stony form, unable to simply shrug off the kicks and punches that it was dealt. It went to sink a claw in its attacker, only to have the attacker jump off, avoiding the claws.

"I see why you guys are having trouble with this dryads." IC said as he pulled the Wind Edge off his back and charged the dryad, who ran away. IC struck hard on the tree, tearing a peice of the stony tree off. IC jumped back, and starting watching the shadows that danced in the woods, listening to the ruffles of the stony leaves as the dryads danced within their safty. IC smiled, because this would be their last day to do their dance.

[Flarecobra]

I knew that I was in trouble, after watching the whip start to petrofy, I let it go and threw a hastly-formed fireball at the dryad, who was caught off-guard, givimg me some time to quickly Jump into the air. "Ok bitch, let's see you like a little Mega-Flare." I said, landing on a high branch of a still-living tree, and started to charge. Just then, I felt a sharp pain in my leg, and looked to see the Dryad, her claws stuck into my left leg armor. I knew I could kick it off of me, so I decided to take her down with me. I shot off the Mega-flare at the little rubble monsters, grabber her other wrist, and game my own little insane grin. "Let's go for a ride." I said, and dropped off the branch, taking the Dryad with me, who now looked like she was panicking. Right before I hit bottom, my wings flared, and I sent her smashing into the ground, making a bit of a mess. "Ok, That fucking hurt..." I said, landing nearby, my wings strainged, and my left leg wasn't moving too good. I casted a quick Cure-2 on myself, only to find that my leg was still not moving too good. "Oh, shit....." I said to myself, feeling out of the fight for now.

[Fenris]

Fenris lay there, his mind reeling, his muscles not responding to his brain's commands. He spent all of his remaining energy into two words:

"Little... help?" and passed out. His life was fading quickly.

[Skyshot]

"Thanks, Syttulg!" Skyshot let the New Treefolk deal with the backslasher while he returned to the one working to get off the ground. He immediately kicked it in the chest with his boot sole, knocking it back onto its back, put his feet on its shoulders to pin it down, and went back to sticking his staff into its throat. "Die."

He looked down at his front to assess the damage. Strange, it had scabbed over rather quickly. Or...oh no. He was turning to stone.

His feet felt strange. He let out a yell and jumped off, only making it a foot or so back away from the dryad. The monster leapt up, considerably quicker now with its more fleshy build. He swung Nightstorm with his right hand, hitting the dryad across the face and stunning it for a second, but felt a sudden pain in his wrist -- possibly a sprain. Time for fast action.

"HARM!" The dryad fell back and screamed before scrambling away from him into the nearest tree. Skyshot didn't bother to give chase, considering his boots and feet were made from stone. He instead looked around during his moment of pause. His eyes widened. "Fenris! Oh great. Summon Fenris!" The hobo immediately appeared at his side, sans bravado. "Heal."

The wounds began to knit together, and Fenris rose to his feet.

"Wha...?"

Skyshot pushed Nightstorm into his hands.

"Here. Use this. Don't worry, it's indestructable." He took out his dagger with his left hand and prepared for the next assault. He heard Steel's voice saying his name, and suddenly had a Brilliant Idea (TM). Why fight alone when he could fight in a circle? "Summon Steel Shadow." The spell worked, unlike some of the target's body functions at the moment. "Holy crap, Steel. Cure Critic. Hey, is Arhra calling us?"

OOC: I talked to Fenris before making this post; he's cool with it. I didn't talk to Steel Shadow beforehand, but since he was calling for help, decided to go with it. Steel, if you don't like this, just let me know and I'll change it.

[Fenris]

Fenris groaned and wielded the staff. Sure, it was a bit heavy, but he adjusted to the weight. Adrenaline was flooding through his system, and that seemed to help remarkably. A dryad rushed at Fenris, Skyshot, and Steel. Fenris stepped in front of the dryad, and with a deft blow to the face of the creature. This dryad looked... familiar to him. His mind raced back to when he nearly died no less than a minute ago. His eyes widened and locked into a look of determination.

"This time, you're going down."

'Oooh, tough words.' Fenris ignored him.

Fenris reached out, and grasped the Dryad by the neck. She hissed and slashed, and his hand turned to stone due to the direct contact with the creature, but her neck became less stony. He shakily raised Nightstorm with one hand and drew it back. He swung the heavy staff like a baseball bat, releasing his grip on the dryad moments before the staff struck true. Nightstorm hit the dryad in her weakened neck, and rammed into her spine.

Fenris panted as the stone overtook his hand and started spreading up his arm. He awkwardly repositioned that hand on the dryad's neck, revealing more and more vulnerable flesh. Drawing out his uber-longknife, he slit the throat of the stunned Dryad.

Fenris stood up, and held up his stony arm.

"Can anybody reverse this? And could you also reverse the stone on Rhiya? It looks like she needs it more than I do."

As he uttered those words, a rubble critter loomed over and behind him.

"Oh shit."

[PhoenixFlame]

Phoenix, ironically, was unmolested for the time being. A time being consisting of only a few seconds as she waded through the mass of trees to get a look at the majority of the battle. Her eyes settled on a stone Rhiya and a mass of felled trees. Ironically, her uncaring tactical mind said, "Yes! Vantage point!" rather than "Oh noes, Rhiya is petrified!"

Phoenix made her way, as quickly as she could, towards Rhiya, ignoring the nearby Dryads whom were more or less occupied with the other NPFers, aswell as the stone constructs dealing with Arhra. Dodging a swipe from a fleshier foe as she approached the Rhiya-monolith, Phoenix deftly began climbing the stone dragon, reaching summit in what would be considered a record time amongst professional dragon-climbers.*

Grabbing hold of one of Rhiya's scales with her stony, now barely manipulatable right arm, Vampire-Phoenix slung her left arm, gun in hand, out over the battlefield with a triumphant grin.

"Fire in the hole!" she yelled, taking aim at a random Dryad from atop her stony high-ground, and began firing double-action into their masses.

*In the year 1029 BC, Dragon-Climbing was made an official sport in the annual Olympic Games.

((Person next can determine who gets handy-dandy fire support, while I'm sure Arhra is going to have them try to climb Rhiya after me. Luckily, having the high ground is an advantage. Hurray for salvaging bad situations.))

[Bailey]

Syttulg was knocked backwards as the Dryad he was hanging off of took multiple bullets, knocking it over. This would in most circumstances be helpful, but here, it meant that he had handcuffs in the shape of a statue's head. Making an attempt at picking himself up off the ground, he discovered that his legs from his knees down were made of stone, and a call to his nannites proved to show that he was out of batteries.

Dragging himself over to a tree, he managed to get himself upright, using the tree as a brace, and stayed there waiting for something to come within range.