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.