Adel
Villain
Hoc est SPARTA.
Posts: 207
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Post by Adel on Jan 9, 2009 4:22:42 GMT -5
Adel awoke feeling as refreshed as one could in the event that one slept on a bed constructed entirely out of a sheet of fabric, a hard pillow, and some wood. Adel would normally have been furious at such a terrible sleep, but she no longer recognized it as such. Her sleep had been a fine one indeed, compared to years of stasis, the desert in a storm, or forced unconsciousness. She was happy to wake up in any kind of bed, really, and that in and of itself was mildly depressing.
Lurching out of bed and stretching her cricked back until it felt movable, Adel looked around for Kefka and found he was nowhere in the barracks. She didn’t know whether to feel panicked or relieved that he might have taken off while she slept, and so she chose to remain neutral on the matter. Instead of fretting or throwing a small, one-person party over the ridiculous clod, Adel decided to play at normalcy while she still had the opportunity. Walking up to a mirror set up near the entrance to the barracks, the sorceress straightened her appearance out as best she could: retying her braid, adjusting her headband, and washing dirt off of herself with some mildly unpleasant smelling water in a nearby bucket that had some soap next to it. She wasn’t entirely certain the water wasn’t urine, but it looked alright to her. Following the adjustments to her appearance, Adel made for the supply room to fix herself a breakfast of canned fruit, scrambled eggs, water, and some kind of meat which she had probably overcooked for safety’s sake.
Feeling much better by now, the Estharian sorceress sighed in mild contentness before resigning herself to the fact that she had to be on her way before whoever ran this place came back or, if they were all dead, before whatever killed them all came back. Checking the armoury a second time only to find nothing new, Adel headed into the captain’s room to find Kefka napping peacefully in a fancy cot that wasn’t at all too small for the clown. Glaring jealously at the comfortable man, Adel returned to the supply room to grab another can of fruit before stomping back to the captain’s room and throwing it at Kefka’s sleeping body.
“Wake up you idiot!” She shouted in annoyance as the can clunked off of the poor man and rolled onto the floor. Hefting him out of bed and onto his feet before he could react, the sorceress quickly picked the can up off of the floor and ripped the top quarter off of it before shoving the container into the Kefka’s hands, smirking ever so slightly as the force of the action sent the syrupy concoction used as a preservative spilling onto Kefka’s shirt. “Eat. We’re leaving in five minutes.” She finished before walking out toward the exit, doing her best not to hear anything he said.
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Post by Kefka Palazzo on Jan 11, 2009 22:12:45 GMT -5
The mage was blissfully aware of just how long it had been since he had been afforded the luxury of a comfortable sleep, let alone just how long it had been since he had considered it a luxury. Had he ever? Still, the effect wasn't lost on him when a canned good of unknown origin crashed into his chest. Kefka swung wildly at his unseen foe, sitting up just as Adel shoved the can into his hands. He opened his sleep-heavy eyes slowly, grimacing at the feeling of the cold, thick liquid sliding down the front of his shirt. "You bitch," he hissed through his teeth at the retreating sorceress, dropping the can on the floor as he stood. "Ugh, this just won't do." He could deal with dust and dirt and even sand, but this? Not a chance in hell! He began rifling through the ex-Captain's personal belongings without so much as a though of their former owner, seeking out anything to keep him from wearing his own mess of a shirt.
Among piles of surprisingly clean looking clothes, Kefka managed to find a crisp white shirt, wrapped in paper that likely accounted for its condition. Perhaps it was a present, not yet worn in times of war. With a victorious smile, the mage stripped off his own shirt, replacing it with his new find. The shirt was a fine fit, if a bit long, a bit ruffled at the sleeves. Perhaps it was not practical, but when had that been any concern of his? Satisfied, he shouldered his pack and headed into the barracks, leaving the can of fruit where it lay. Anyway, who was she to tell him when and what to eat? He could eat on the way!
Kefka could not, however, leave this place without checking the mirror he had spotted and ignored the day before. The sight that greeted him there, however, was as much of a shock as surviving the tower's collapse had been. What stared back at him was a haggard, dirty looking man, makeup streaked and faded and hair wild and out of place. He took a moment to ascertain that this was not a painting, that it was indeed a mirror, before he began scrubbing at his face with a pilfered cloth. Layers of colored paint wiped easily from his face, revealing pale skin, tinted pink from the scrubbing. Free of the makeup, Kefka felt naked, and yet somehow more comfortable. Had the really looked like that this whole time? Was this what Adel had taken him for; some fool in faded makeup? This was unacceptable.
The mage raked his fingers through his hair, rather roughly, working out tangles where he could. Aided by its unwashed state, his hair smoothed back rather nicely, pulled into a tight ponytail at the base of his skull. He wasn't fond of the idea of looking so plain, so he was relieved to find the beaded and feathered comb he kept tucked in his hair had survived intact. Now the figure in the mirror had obtained some semblance of his usual flair and presentability, which did a number to calm the madman's nerves. He was as satisfied as he could be, given the situation, so with this, he shouldered his pack once more, venturing into the first room of the bunker in search of Adel.
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Adel
Villain
Hoc est SPARTA.
Posts: 207
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Post by Adel on Jan 21, 2009 5:00:47 GMT -5
((UGH. I don't know what's wrong with me. I'll really try to get one out later.))
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Adel
Villain
Hoc est SPARTA.
Posts: 207
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Post by Adel on Jan 22, 2009 2:01:27 GMT -5
Adel looked back as she made her way down the tunnel, making sure Kefka was following her. She looked the mage up and down when she saw him, appraising his face without coloring and his body with horrid, dirty rags on it. “No wonder you wear makeup.” She mocked quietly. She didn’t actually consider Kefka an ugly man, but the barb came to her and she wasn’t in the mood to be kind at the moment. It served him right, really. He looked so comfortable in the captain’s bed, and now in the captain’s clothes, and Adel was nothing if not vindictive.
As they walked, dodging the traps quite efficiently this time thanks to actually knowing where they were placed. The soldiers who’d stayed in that place had thankfully listed the various traps on a sign just before the tunnel entrance, likely so they wouldn’t lose any of their own men in the caves. Stepping over the last trip wire, Adel sighed contently and began a more leisurely stroll. Finally she wouldn’t have to worry about sporadic deathtraps springing up on her out of every little crevice. “That’s the last one.” Adel confirmed with Kefka, who seemed to be carrying his weight in supplies with a surprising efficiency. Something told her he’d emptied out his bag while she wasn’t looking, the little loon.
The sorceress opened her mouth to chide him for it, but she heard an unexpected sound when she did so. “Muhhhhhh…” Came the sound from up ahead in the caves, as though some sort of pained death rattle was echoing through the cavern. She turned to look at Kefka at that, just to be sure it wasn’t his moaning, and opened her mouth to speak again after a moment of pondering the noise. Upon doing so, she had the same sound assail her ears; even more volume in use this time. She kept her mouth closed this time, raising her eyebrow at Kefka curiously. It was an unnerving sound, to be certain. Not because she cared that someone was dying, but because it begged the question of what killed him.
It was at this point that a man walked out from around the corner carrying a sword, clad in armor, and sporting a number of somewhat serious looking wounds. He was green, appeared to be decaying, and emitted the sound again as he spotted the two mages and began to charge.
“Ah.” Adel said simply, her curiosity satisfied as she dropped her knapsack and drew her sword.
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Post by Kefka Palazzo on Jan 26, 2009 0:51:51 GMT -5
Kefka pulled a face at the look Adel was giving him as he approached, his brow furrowing deeper when she addressed him. He snatched one of the torches from the cave wall with a snort. She must have known that it made him terribly uncomfortable to be without his makeup. She was right, though, as much as he was loath to admit it. He was drab, boring, colorless without his paint, and this was mildly depressing. Even so, and the Mage found this to be somewhat of a surprise, it seemed that nothing would break his good spirits this morning. Perhaps it was the cot? As such, the madman felt it appropriate to simply stick his tongue out at her when she turned as a retort.
The pair passed in relative silence through the tunnel leading out of the Returner's camp. Kefka's sense of unease disappeared with the clearing of each trap, only to return again with the anticipation of a new one. All in all, it was a maddening experience, one which the madman could appreciate despite it being aimed at him. As they stepped over the last trip wire, the mage flashed a brilliant, if a bit brusque grin at Adel. He could tell that she already held contempt for the Returners who had set the traps, and Kefka was not the type to share. They were his enemies and–did she really have to look at him like that? It was unnerving how she always seemed to have some bone to pick with him; she reminded him of that blockhead, Leo. Always had something to say.
Still, this certainly didn't prepare him for what came when she opened her mouth this time. It was a guttural sort of noise, one that seemed almost comical to the madman. He had to keep from giggling, just enough to keep a keen ear to the noise, and the look Adel was giving him when it happened again certainly wasn't helping. It was about then that the armored corpse ambled around the corner, at which point Kefka couldn't help but giggle. A zombie. Really? It tromped towards them at an alarmingly quick rate, quite a surprise, so that the mage found himself backing up, arms raised.
"So! Let's say I set it on fire and you chop its head off, hm?" He laughed, the air around him cracking briefly with a warm light that concentrated at the tips of his fingers. A weak fire spell caught the undead man in the head, it's body quickly enveloped in flame. This seemed to do little more than enrage the creature, which was rushing forward even faster, wildly swinging its sword. While this should have worried him, the mage could hardly see past the tears clouding his eyes. Flaming zombies! Now, that's brilliant!
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Adel
Villain
Hoc est SPARTA.
Posts: 207
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Post by Adel on Jan 30, 2009 5:17:01 GMT -5
As the corpse burst into relatively unhelpful flames while running toward the two, the Sorceress Adel couldn’t help but laugh right alongside Kefka as she drew her sword. While Adel didn’t share in Kefka’s sadism for its own sake, she certainly wasn’t above an unhealthy dose of applied sadism, and she applied it—with gusto—to pretty much everything she could get away with. It was important to love what one did, after all.
Adel was not a swordswoman by any stretch of the imagination, but what she lacked in skill she made up for in supernatural strength. As she swung her sword, the force of the blow struck the creature’s weapon with such power that it actually tore his blade, and his fiery decaying arm with it, from him and sent it careening into a wall. Her blade then continued on its way until it deftly lobbed the man-turned-monster’s head off. “Hah!” She yelled victoriously, her voice laden with contemptuous enjoyment of the sight.
As she turned to Kefka with a cocky smile on her face, she was surprised to feel the briefest sense of camaraderie with the clown. While Adel could have easily overtaken the zombie by herself, there was a sense of satisfaction in so utterly overwhelming an opponent through teamwork. The woman couldn’t be bothered to analyze herself right now, though, and so she chalked it up to the heat of battle and filed it away in the back of her mind.
As she went to say something, however, she opened her mouth to speak only to hear the same sound she’d heard earlier: a guttural moaning sound that seemed almost like a death rattle. She closed her mouth at that, and her expression turned annoyed as she heard several more from around the corner. Turning back toward the direction the sounds were coming from, Adel was disappointed, even if unsurprised, to see a disturbingly large horde of the creatures lurching themselves out of the shadows toward the spellcasters. There was roughly a dozen at first before the number doubled in short notice. In thirty seconds it seemed as though there was roughly fifty of the creatures hobbling about in the general direction of the two.
Adel sighed at the inconvenience at first. As time went on and their numbers grew, however, her mood took a slightly more fearful turn.
“Shit.”
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Post by Kefka Palazzo on Feb 16, 2009 20:32:20 GMT -5
As the zombie's head rolled past, Kefka deftly side-stepped it, wiping the tears from his eyes. The mage quickly sobered with the proud look Adel shot at him, though he was too busy rolling his eyes to catch what might have lay beneath it. He had only just recovered when the noises began anew, this time in duplicate and triplicate and so on, until anything Adel might have said was drowned out completely. Try as he might, Kefka simply couldn't find anything funny in this, as it meant more of the horrid things were coming, and that couldn't be good. "This is, heh, this is not funny." What he wouldn't do for a hundred or so revivify ampoules right about now, and there couldn't be more than a handful in his bag. It was painfully clear just how ill-prepared the Returners were for a zombie infestation—speaking of the Returners...!
"Oh, how the mighty have fallen," the madman declared, readying himself to cast another spell. It occurred to him that each and every one of the undead louts before them were wearing the same iron armor he and Adel had found in the armory. Kefka fired another, more powerful spell into the gathering troupe of zombie Returners, a small group of which were knocked back and set aflame as the ball of fire tore through their ranks. Those that caught fire soon fell to the ground, and those that fell were quickly trampled. And yet, the crowd still moved forward, leaving the mage to wonder if the men were peskier now than they were in life. Even if he could use his Light of Judgement, it would likely collapse the entire cave. Of course, if he could use that kind of magic, he wouldn't be here in the first place.
((Shortest post EVAR.))
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Adel
Villain
Hoc est SPARTA.
Posts: 207
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Post by Adel on Feb 25, 2009 5:19:05 GMT -5
Adel received no small amount of satisfaction as she watched the zombies collapse in flames, but as the smell of burning corpses reached her and smoke began to fill the cave Adel shot Kefka a rather annoyed look. It was bad enough that Adel was fighting for her life against a horde of zombies, but now she was fighting for her life against a horde of zombies, it stank like burning bodies, and she might suffocate if the fight dragged on too far.
“Who are the mighty and how have they fallen?” Adel called over her hacking at the creatures. As one of the beasts got a little too close, Adel recoiled in disgust as it nearly succeeded in biting her arm. Rearing back the very same arm, Adel shot forward and punched the zombie’s head clean off. The vindication on Adel’s face lasted only until she realized the head had caved in around her hand, and there was now an undead skull wrapped around her gauntlet.
“Ugh!” She grunted indignantly, punching furiously at the wall and other zombies with one hand and swinging her sword blindly with the other, trying with all her might to get the head off of her hand without letting her guard down. It probably would have been easier if the skull hadn’t been in a helmet. “Get it off!” Adel screamed angrily as she unsuccessfully attempted to fling the head off before finally sending it hurling–in addition to a rather powerful wave of ice–toward the thirteenth zombie from the left, freezing both it and the head solid before they both fell to the ground and shattered.
Adel did her best to maintain a focus on the fight before her, but a small part of her mind couldn’t help but play that wave of ice over and over again in her mind. She’d felt some sort of unspecified magic build up in her rage, but she hadn’t specified what form to give it and she hadn’t given the mental order to release any spells. It’s as if they’d acted of their own accord, and Adel wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
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Post by Kefka Palazzo on Mar 2, 2009 4:43:38 GMT -5
"The Returners," Kefka called over the moaning hoard, "dirty roustabouts, the lot of them, but persistent!" In death, even! His nose scrunched momentarily with the smell of burning flesh. What was left of the zombies burned quickly, despite the lack of accelerant, a fact that the mage appreciated given their location. What was unfortunate was that the smoke was now so thick that the madman almost missed Adel's little rendezvous with a zombie's head. The exchange itself happened so quickly that it left him bewildered for a moment before it sunk in fully. This would have had the mage in tears if not for the fact that there was now a zombie clinging to his shiny new boots. With a yelp and little hesitation, Kefka unsheathed the blade of his cane sword, lopping off the ghoul's head in the same motion. The ease with which the blade sliced through the zombies neck surprised and, at the same time, excited the madman. Early in his military career, he had sworn off physical weapons. He found them brutish, and too personal for the average fight. But this! This he could get use to! He was, however, a fickle fighter, and the cane had served its purpose for now. As he sheathed the blade and kicked the zombie aside, a bright white flash caught his attention. The mage followed the blast with his eyes, watching as the unfocused ice spell practically crystallized a zombie. Something dawned on him as he watched; Adel's spells always looked different from his own, and though he could usually identify what spell she was casting, as well as the intensity, something was not right. He wondered bitterly, for a moment, if she was an innate magic user like those damned Thamasans. Why, then, could she be learning so slowly? She should have surpassed him by now—and she was if that ice spell was any indicator. The thought sparked something in him, something Kefka had not felt in ages. It was an anger, a true hatred, one that he had felt for the Gesthal, and Terra, and her little group of stray dogs. All at once he felt hot—too hot—and too confined. There was a tingling that started in his toes and traveled to the tips of his fingers. He was furious, and rightfully so. The room seemed to dim around them for a moment as orbs of fiery light formed above a particularly large group of zombies. They shrunk in size as they floated down, condensing until there was an almost blinding aura surrounding them. It held for a moment, shrinking in intensity at first, then exploding in a percussive blast. When the light died down, the results of the spell could be seen in the pile of charred corpses in the middle of the mob. Those immediately outside of the blast range lay crawling on the ground, fighting to right themselves, while the rest remained unharmed, if a bit confused. The cave itself seemed a little worse for wear; several of the larger stalactites in the spell's range had been dislodged and fell, though nothing looked close to collapse. The spell-caster himself recovered after a bit of stumbling. Kefka shot a look at Adel, not sure why he cared if she was all right, and shrugged when she looked his way. ((Does this make up for it? ))
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Adel
Villain
Hoc est SPARTA.
Posts: 207
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Post by Adel on Mar 11, 2009 22:14:17 GMT -5
Satisfied for now with Kefka’s explanation of the so-called Returners, Adel mentally shrugged at this new information, figuring them to be some sort of militia group Kefka’s so-called empire had dealt with in the past, or perhaps just a group of survivalists who had previously raided the large hoard of random twisted metal in which the clown lived. It wasn’t really important. What was important was that the now dead bodies of these people were shambling toward Adel and her partner of circumstance, and they likely meant to feast upon the two of them as the undead tend to do. As she hacked at the creatures she wondered curiously why they didn’t turn to one-another for food, but dismissed it as the design of whatever spells had enchanted them into their current forms.
Lost in her thoughts, as well as the increasingly redundant chore of slaughtering more and more Returners, Adel was unprepared for the burst of white hot magic that soon shook the walls of the tunnel. It nearly incinerated those it touched, and knocked to the ground those nearby who hadn’t taken the brunt of the attack. Adel moved to face Kefka, attempting to make sure such an attack hadn’t left the weak little clod unconscious, but was distracted by the dark comedy of several zombies who had survived the attack being crushed to death by falling stalactites. They collapsed like ragdolls filled with chicken bones under the weight of the jagged rocks as their undeath was cut laughably short. Hilarious.
Too busy to laugh, and in increasing danger as the horde’s numbers failed to dwindle, Adel thought momentarily about Kefka’s magic. She recognized the spell for what it was, even barring the usual slight differences between Kefka’s magic and her own, but it was the unusual difference in appearance that had piqued her curiosity. She at first chalked it up to the difference between true sorceress magic and whatever Odine’s para-magic project had become since her isolation, of course. However, earlier renditions of the para-magic system had appeared visually identical to Adel’s own spells. Oh sure, they weren’t anywhere near as powerful, but that just made them appear dialed down, not as though they were entirely different spells.
Ah yes, Dr. Odine’s experiments. Adel smirked grimly as her memory dominated her curiosity. Before her subjects had betrayed and entombed her in the cold depth of space, Dr. Odine had been working on a way to grant magic to non-sorceresses for military purposes. Well, he claimed it was military purposes, anyways. Adel knew he only wanted to try his hand at it for its own sake.
At first Odine had attempted to use mechanical battery packs to store the magic he had extracted from naturally occurring springs, but this had returned with mixed results. Estharian robotics were capable of handling multiple spells, but many–especially that failed Gesper program–began acting erratically if too many spells were granted to a single unit. Humans were completely incapable of using the packs, and had to be mechanized to utilize even two or three spells. Eventually Odine abandoned the battery project and managed to concoct a novel little magic system using creatures called Guardian Forces.
GFs were curious beings. They were quite distinct from regular monsters, both in power and intelligence, and they showed remarkable affinity for manipulating the naturally occurring magic that appeared in springs and normal monsters. They were also entirely too prone to isolation, and this made capturing them and experimenting on them quite easy, and after spending roughly a year on that strange floating research center, Odine had returned with a Guardian Force successfully junctioned to a man.
At this point Adel became too distracted by zombies to continue any non-combat pondering and, using magic to magnify her speed, leapt into the horde with renewed fervor; her hunger for revenge fueling her attacks against the seemingly endless supply of creatures. There were entirely too many of these things for them all to have lived in that run-down excuse for a military base. There must have been others in the tunnels, or in other places in the area. She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad news.
“These abominations are becoming more than the mere nuisance I assumed them to be!” The sorceress screeched, punching at one particularly stubborn zombie that refused to release her sword. She’d sustained several injuries by this point, both from letting her mind wander and from good old-fashioned carelessness, but she’d managed to avoid cursing herself thus far. She could only hope this trend would continue until they had time to heal themselves.
((Ramble ramble ramble. Sorry it's so all over the place.))
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Post by Kefka Palazzo on Mar 15, 2009 1:59:46 GMT -5
Kefka nodded in agreement with Adel's comment, knocking back a small group of zombies with a minor fire spell. It had become clear that, despite their persistent nature, these men were even more frustrating in this cursed state, a fact that both maddened and amused the mage. The same could be said about their flammability, however, and he was glad to take advantage of that, enough that a small grin graced his thin lips as he cut through the hoard with his magic. "This is really getting old," he called to everyone and no one, crushing the skull of a zombie, who had wandered too close, under his boot. He'd always wanted the chance to pick the brain of a Returner. HA! There was nothing funny, however, about the state of his shiny new boots, and Kefka quickly found himself yearning for a nice, warm bath.
He glanced at Adel, noting her quick movement despite her still larger-than-average size, as well as the various injuries she had sustained. The mage himself had remained relatively untouched, save for a few scratches and a nasty headache he had acquired in the blast. He wondered, briefly, just how much progress they made as they fought; had they succeeded in driving the zombies back, or were the zombies moving them? The walls of the cavern told no tales, and the flow of undead creatures showed no sign on letting up.
Somewhere in his pondering, Kefka noticed that one of the zombies that had managed to pass the Sorceress had gotten wise, and was now shambling towards her. This would not have been a problem if Adel were minding her back. She wasn't, he supposed, as she was confident that he was taking care of it. He shook his head with a tsk-tsk-tsk, that ever-present smile of his widening just a bit. If he didn't need her —and he didn't, in the long run—he would have let the thing get to her. He soon realized that this wouldn't fly, however, as losing her would leave him in a tricky spot that he might not get out of in his condition. Even worse, there was the possibility of Adel getting zombified, if the scamp didn't eat her, and coming after the mage, herself.
Without really realizing what he was doing, the madman unsheathed his blade once more, dropping his pack to the side. He shot off a mid-range fire spell, knocking an approaching group of zombies back into another, toppling a good number of the beasts over. With a grunt, he hefted the blade over his head and down, nearly slicing the creature in half before it fell to the ground. "I have GOT to stop doing that!" he barked, ducking just in time to avoid Adel's blade.
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Adel
Villain
Hoc est SPARTA.
Posts: 207
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Post by Adel on Mar 20, 2009 3:26:25 GMT -5
Adel yelled angrily as she swung her blade around, having been startled by the sound of something entirely too close to her. The noise was too close, though. She knew she wouldn’t reach it in time, and even as she swung her blade she prepared to take a hit. The hit never came, to her surprise. Once she’d finished her apparently meaningless strike, Adel saw before her the man named Kefka Pa-…something. He had felled one of the wicked undead who had managed to get too close to her, going out of his way to save her for the second time since their meeting. Kefka then proceeded to duck her strike and curse his apparently compulsive heroics. She would have to remember both the favors he’d done for her since they’d met one another and the speed with which he dodged that attack.
Not that she owed him, of course, but once again this proved Kefka had some sort of innate desire to protect her, and this was not something Adel was used to. Only the staunchest Estharian patriots had ever been so committed to her, and theirs was out of a love for their nation rather than genuine concern for Adel. Kefka was time and again proving his usefulness. She smirked both to herself and at Kefka for a moment before resuming battle. The fact that he tried to hide his strange loyalties with rage only made her smirk larger. The clown didn’t want Adel to think he respected her. How quaint.
The everlasting tide of zombies was beginning to quell as the two fought, and where once there stood ten zombies now there stood nine, then eight, and so on. Finally, progress was being made. Adel had been fighting so long that she’d lost her sword in one of the more armored corpses. In too much of a hurry to pull it out, she’d simply torn the leg off of one of the fallen zombies and began using it as a club for a minute or so before she deemed it too floppy to wield properly. Tearing the femur from the leg for a more solid weapon, Adel leapt at the nearest creature in a tired rage. Hopefully this would be over soon.
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Post by Kefka Palazzo on Mar 22, 2009 2:29:37 GMT -5
The mage could not believe what he was seeing as Adel ripped the femur out of one unfortunate zombie's leg. It had been funny when she went after them with the entire severed leg, but this? She was a barbaric wench, to be sure! Something told him that he should be enjoying her ruthless mirth, but he was so tired. Her actions managed to draw out of him mild disgust and boredom, at best. Could his magic really be this draining? At this pace, he'd need a nap before they even managed to make their way out of the cavern.
Sensing this, Kefka stuck to his blade, glad for its ability to slice off heads with a single, lazy stroke. He was quick about it, though, and if there was anything to say about him, it was that he needed little to no incentive to kill. It came easy and natural, and soon he found that the creatures' numbers dwindled to just a few. The slaughter hadn't taken as long as Kefka had expected. They cut through what seemed like hundreds rather quickly, and yet he found that his limbs ached as much as his head. With one last, sleepy swing, they had finished the beasts off; the madman delighted in kicking a stray head over the pile of bodies. "All dead," he chimed, swinging his blade a few times to clear off the muck before he sheathed it.
He glanced at Adel, who looked to still be in a rage from the fight, and flashed her a wide grin. With a shake of his head, the mage managed a quiet chuckle as he staggered off to find his pack. He rifled through it, pulling out a sizable chunk of dried meat along with a couple of potions. Chewing at the leather-tough piece of meat, Kefka wandered over to the sorceress, extending a bottle to her. "You're gonna need that," he half-mumbled, nearly dropping it in the exchange. He wasn't looking for gratitude, not at all, but the woman was looking so haggard that she might drop down in the pile of bones and rotting flesh, and he simply didn't want to deal with that.
More than a little tired, the mage trudged back to his pack, "breakfast" in hand, and leaned against the wall. There, he slid down, resting his head on his pack for a moment. The goddesses really needed to get their shit in order, he thought as he sat there, because this just had to stop. The flow of magic seemed to come in waves these days, easy to come by and ready to grant him one moment, and yet so limited the next. Kefka wanted to scream, but he had neither the energy nor the desire to cause a cave-in. As such, he settled, finally, with uttering a frustrated grunt and nothing more. He couldn't wait to get out of this damnable cave.
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Adel
Villain
Hoc est SPARTA.
Posts: 207
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Post by Adel on Mar 29, 2009 21:03:29 GMT -5
Adel caught the potion as Kefka all but dropped it into her hands. Hastily she opened the mixture and downed half the bottle before applying the rest of it directly to the wounds. She was still unsure exactly how these things were used, and hoped for the sake of her pride that Kefka wouldn’t point out that she was doing it wrong. She nodded an acknowledgment toward the clown as she poured the last drop of liquid on her arm, and this was as close to a thanks as she was going to get. As the healing effects took hold, Adel felt the same small wave of relaxation as she had before wash over her injuries as they stitched themselves up. She imagined for a moment that there were people out there who got a kick out of harming themselves and then drinking these. It was enough to bring a grim smile to her face. Humanity sickened her.
Did humanity include Kefka? Adel wondered this as she dropped her makeshift club, grabbed a sword off the ground identical to her old one, and sheathed it. It seemed a given at first. He certainly looked human, she noted, and there was nothing to indicate he was a monster. Still, there were subtle differences between every other fool she’d ever met and the man who sat before her eating a hunk of something she couldn’t even begin to identify. She’d met a few exceptional people in her life. Dr. Odine came to mind first, but for all his genius he was still a pitiful slave to his fear just like everyone else. That, ultimately, is what lead to her entombment. Ellone, of course, was quite exceptional. She would still make an excellent successor if she could be found in time. The sorceress who had died at Adel’s feet, so long ago that Adel couldn’t even remember her name, had been quite exceptional. That was why Adel had killed her, after all. She needed to be as exceptional as that sorceress had been.
Kefka’s mannerisms, however, were like nothing she’d ever seen before. He seemed completely out of his mind, and yet perfectly capable of holding something resembling intelligent conversation. He had an odd sort of para-magic, yet physically he was no more impressive than a sickly teenage boy. She began to wonder if Kefka wasn’t some sort of experiment, or perhaps even a Guardian Force. She perished the thought quickly, though, and settled again on her original assumption that he was a hermit driven mad by isolation who had stumbled upon a Guardian Force. It was the simplest explanation, she figured. Still, something was off.
“You’re lost.” Adel said teasingly as she followed the vagrant’s example and slumped against the wall, sliding down it into a resting position as she let her muscles recharge themselves. “You didn’t see any of this coming. You don’t know where we are. You only said you did so I wouldn’t kill you.” She accused with a smile. The sorceress chuckled to herself as she crawled over various corpses and reached her pack. It had luckily been spared any damage, which was more than she could say for her new shirt. Pulling out an unmarked can, Adel tore it open to reveal the same canned fruit she’d eaten that morning. After drinking the syrup and eating the fruit, Adel let out a burp and simply laid there for a time. She couldn’t bring herself to get up, and so she instead waited for Kefka to initiate the journey.
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Post by Kefka Palazzo on Apr 8, 2009 1:08:11 GMT -5
Kefka blinked bleary eyes at his attacker, resisting the urge to drop his jaw and scoff at the verbal blow. Lost? She couldn't possibly know, he thought; was this some game? Instead, he smiled at her, eyes shining as he offered with a nod, "You're right." Two could play that game, and he was determined to win. When she gave him nothing, the mage pouted and waved away the curious look he got. "It's your fault," he chided, returning the same accusing smile. "You and those bombs that closed off the entrance. Powww" He gestured with his hands to indicate an explosion, giggling wildly. "I knew where we were headed!"
They sat quietly for a small amount of time, neither making the move to get up. Some of his energy restored with the food he had eaten, Kefka stretched, bones creaking and snapping as he rose to his feet. "We should go," he called to the sorceress half-heartedly, wanting badly to take a nap. Getting out of this rotting mess of bones and flesh came higher on his list, however, as did leaving the cave far behind. There was nothing the madman loved more than reveling in his victory, but he had always done so from afar, simply observing the damage he had done; The bodies stank too horribly in such close quarters for him to even begin celebrating.
He stretched again, and hefted his pack over his shoulder, stifling a yawn with his upper arm. He supposed that they would come to an exit soon, as the blast seemed to have opened a few shallow holes that were now streaming light into the narrow cavern. "Were those there before?" he mumbled, eyeing the walls suspiciously. He hadn't supposed they were. "Heh... whoops."
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