[pain tears through him, burns and gouges all, but more importantly he can breathe now -- he pulls in the air, desperate and greedy, and uses his now free leg as leverage, leaning forward and trying to yank himself free, swinging his ladle-staff behind him this time for BONKS!!!!
there's still the hand on his waist, so he tries using the lantern there too. let go let go let go]
it's time for bonks! he brings his lantern in and whaps the shit out the hand on his waist, and it does not like that. but it's still holding fast, and --
well - there might be someone coming to your aid...]
IN THIS ONE SHU MATERIALIZES OUT OF NOWHERE? the claws are still digging in his back, but he's ignoring the pain, he'll try another spell to blast them off him]
he jumps out of the shadows - a head comes rolling out after him? hmm, concerning! but there's not much time to waste because shit is happening. shu, as you slam your leg into the hand, you will release that maybe physical combat is not the way to go with this thing, because it grabs onto your leg, lifts you in the air, and just slams you down into the ground. the force is tremendous - you feel something crack - and a clawed hand grabs your arm, pinning it into the ground.
however i rolled a 1 so eunhyuk, your next spell - again, holy light, is bright and blazing. it seems these things really do not like your light spells. perhaps they are weak to them. maybe it's the fact that you are smiting them like god.
but your holy ladle summons aelfric's might and hits a huge branch of the shadowy hands right at the root. it explodes, sending awful purple shadow glop everywhere, across both of your bodies, and the resulting feel is like, not great! it's not great. but, it does take care of a huge chunk of the hands. three remain - one is grabbing onto shu and trying to drag him downwards into - to something.
eunhyuk, when you look up, you see that shu's eyes are pitch black. doesn't that look familiar? ]
[ don't look at the head, eunhyuk. it's not a great time.
well. does he have his hands free? he might not be able to do much seeing as physical combat seems to be a bad idea and something is definitely, probably broken now, but he's a hunter not a cleric so he doesn't have much choice. and he's not sending scarecrow in there because he's just a lil guy.
so if his hands are free enough he's going to try and get an arrow loose and stab it into the hand grabbing hold of him. sure, he might get wreck again but that's going to at least make it flinch. hopefully.
[Eunhyuk staggers, feeling winded, but the hands clearly aren't because one of them just whipped Shu to the ground like they want to absorb him there and then,
Eunhyuk raises his staff -- and freezes. He can't look at any rolling HEADS right now because his attention narrows in on the black in Shu's eyes,
and the panic immediately makes him loose another spell, aimed at the hand coiled around Shu's arm.]
[ as it turns out, shu, monsters here generally only respond to one kind of kick and it's when a dancer kicks you in the face. that's it. otherwise it's weapons only, baby. you could bite it if you were feeling saucy but i feel like you probably aren't. anyway. you are able to grab an arrow from your quiver and stab it into the monster hand. it doesn't like that, either! the surface of it bubbles and purple-black magic spits out of it. it's at fairly close range, so it's going to be a pretty solid hit. again, the magic that comes from this thing feels like getting frostbite, somewhere between freezing cold and too hot. it blows your bangs back, strikes you in the face.
eunhyuk, you're still doing ok on your magic. you're a pretty high level cleric - though you do start to get the sense that you're maybe at the halfway point? things to keep in mind. if you think about that.
if you're not thinking about it, then disregard! but otherwise, you cast that spell like aelfric's faithful. holy light, again, bursts free from your ladle. and lord, thanks for it, because you are smart enough to realize (you think?) that that blackness might have just been a trick of the light. your spell is well aimed with an 18 - it smashes into the hand on his arm and the monster recoils backwards, shrieking.
that's it, for the hands. the one around shu's waist shrivels as its stabbed and recoils backwards, and panting, bleeding and burnt, you appear to be alright.
eunhyuk, you didn't hit him with a spell, but you just can't shake it. you saw it. his eyes were blackened. maybe it wasn't a trick of the light after all. You have to do what's right. something says, softly, It's kill or be killed. ]
[ this is how we get sexy here, biting gross dead flesh hands that scrabble at them in the dark. oooooo.
thank you for the facial frostburn.
if the hand clinging to shu is finally repelled with a blast of eunhyuk's holy hand grenade, he'll take a moment to shake his head and try to get his bearings. how bright is it around here now? is it still that overwhelming darkness and blanketing of the senses?
he has no idea eunhyuk is about to go feral on his ass, so he's just assessing the situation, making sure his bird is still hanging on in there. normal things. ]
[The hands scatter, but Eunhyuk feels exhausted in more ways than one, the burns, the wounds down his back, the realization that he'll have to be more careful in the future and conserve what he has.
future? He looks down at Shu, he very rudely does not offer him a hand up. Instead, he's holding his staff with a white-knuckled grip, the other clutching the lantern.
If he's running out of magic, then he can use fire. Fire is the best way, the only way.
But if Shu isn't there yet, then he can still take him down. He could strike him on the head, like he did once very recently, hammer in hand. Hammer -- ....]
...Can you stand?
[are you mobile? can you fight? how fast does eunhyuk have to be? can he be? he holds up the lantern to look Shu over more closely,]
[ the hands are all gone, yes. and the darkness..is not! in fact, it's even worse. shu, your lantern has rolled a bit away from you, and the cloying, heavy blackness seems to be pressing in on the two of you. the fog is so thick you can really only see each other by eunhyuk's lanternlight when the holy light spell finally clears away the last of the shadow.
getting rid of that monster didn't stop it. in fact, it's worse. the path is still ahead of you, you think, and the air is still silent. scarecrow has gone completely still, but he's staring at eunhyuk. and shu...
shu, eunhyuk is dangerous. you know that. you remember, don't you? what he did to viktor? viktor was just with you, and now he's gone. eunhyuk murdered him, after all, in cold blood. what if you're next? don't you want to get out of here?
and eunhyuk... that's right.
you remember. you remember the weight and heft of a hammer in your hand. you were fighting a monster, weren't you? an awful monster, someone who had transformed beyond all control. someone who would have killed the entire eudora, if you let them. but you didn't let them. you never do, no matter how unpopular it is, even if you start turning yourself. that's what a leader does.
shu's eyes flicker when you look at him closer in the lanternlight. black, again, and then gone, back to normal. he's got these purple marks across his face now. those could have come from the magic, but you remember what happened to alpates just before you ended up in this awful place, right? how it consumed her. how she was tied up. maybe she was dangerous, a threat, after all.
[ he can feel scarecrow still on his shoulder, little talons digging into the fabric of his coat and pinching his shoulder. it's like a warning, a little nudge that something's wrong. more than just the overwhelming darkness all around them.
something's wrong.
he'd said to someone, a while ago now -- longer than this, before all this. "it's not like I want to die, and I'm not planning on it anytime soon, either." no one gets to choose the day that they die -- it's always a surprise, never when you want it. but sometimes, you can make the choice to fight and try to live a little longer.
he shifts his hand behind him, like he's trying to see if he can push himself upright. he's not. he's grabbing the handle of his axe (thank you sisi) ]
... Maybe. Might need a moment.
[ what will eunhyuk do? there are so many things either of them could do right now -- but whatever it is, eunhyuk will have to swing down if he's like this. and he can work with that. ]
[...There's no alternative. No storage room to put Shu in, no lock to put on his prison. He might not be a monster yet, and that could be fine, if Eunhyuk had a way to restrain him. Alpates, hand and feet bound. Maybe whoever did that had the right idea all along.
...But they hadn't done it right. Not with just a sword through the chest. If they'd burned her body properly, then none of them would be here in the first place. He and Shu wouldn't be trapped in this forest. They'd still be in that cavern, along with everyone else. But it's too late to lament. He simply has to make up for all those mistakes.
His grip tightens -- the first sign -- and then he casts his spell, holy light directly at Shu.
(powers borrowed from a source that would never do harm, but sometimes you have to use whatever you have to, sometimes you need to use something life-saving to cause harm.
it's not the swing down he was expecting, but it is an opening move so. he waits-- and then everything explodes into action all at once. scarecrow shoots up into the air like a lightning bolt, away from the holy light. once he hits a specific height, shu whistles once, sharply, and he lets loose a blast of magic at where eunhyuk is stood.
shu moves at the same time as scarecrow. there's more of him to move, and-- well. he's fast but the holy light of the lord is apparently a little faster, so he has to grit his teeth and power on through the searing, burning sensation as his left arm takes the blunt of the hit. he can feel the skin blister and burn, but has no time to stop and think about it.
his axe is in his right hand, and when scarecrow attacks he takes the opportunity to dart forwards and aim the blunt end of the axe at eunhyuk's face. ]
[it's a hit, but not the strike eunhyuk wanted -- his eyes dart upwards, following the bird's trajectory and he hears the whistle sharp and piercing,
and then shu is on top of him. the blow lands even as he rears backward to try and avoid it, if that had been the sharp side then he would be dead, luckily(?) for him -- all it does is break his glasses in two, the snap echoing, pieces scattering to who knows where.
then the bolt of magic from scarecrow hits him right after, throwing him off his feet and onto the ground, smoking slightly, nice and crispy. that should be really it, but eunhyuk persists, taking the lantern in hand and lobbing it in what he thinks is scarecrow's direction but HE'S NEARSIGHTED AS FCK!!! anyway this is animal abuse and i hate it here.
luckily shu is closer, and he's not so blind that he can't make the shape of him -- he sends a smaller blast of holy light at him, in the form of several sharp spikes]
[ there's a squawk as scarecrow does a pretty sick barrel roll to get away from the lantern so rudely thrown at him. peta will hear of this. there's a rustling of wings before the bird just absolutely divebombs at eunhyuk. stay tuned.
breaking eunhyuk's glasses wasn't quite what he was going for, but it's something -- if he wears them, then he can't see in some way shape or form and that's an advantage. getting a distance between the two of them, he sets his axe down and whips out his bow and arrow. it's not the same as a gun, but the principle of the whole thing, the focus, the aiming. he understands that. his hands are steady as he holds the bow and aims, and fires one arrow, and then another quickly afterwards.
but it's not as fast as a gun would be, leaving him exposed when eunhyuk sends spikes of light after him. he rolls to one side, but it's not fast enough to avoid getting nicked on his right arm around shoulder level and one spike catches him full on through the side, plunging in through skin and muscle and sending his roll into more of an injured sprawl. one that he's quick to grit his teeth through the pain off and push to his feet when scarecrow completes his divebomb from early.
right onto eunhyuk's head, flapping his wings once, twice, before darting back up into the sky. ]
[the first arrow lands in his thigh as he struggles to his feet! straight through! it's like karma, another time, another archer.
the second should land in his chest, it would be poetic, but eunhyuk doesn't want poetic. it skims his shoulder instead as he rolls to avoid it he needs to put shu down, even like this with burns and skewered he's too strong. he has to kill him,
and then scarecrow lands, talons gouging down the side of his face, across his eye, and he grits his teeth, trying to decide -- heal? or -- no, he can take it -- he blasts another light, enveloping the area. harmless, but blinding. a desperate attempt to even the playing field --]
[ scarecrow spirals up into the sky -- too high now. if eunhyuk looks up, he'll still him hovering, waiting for a chance to strike again but keeping his distance in case of stray holy light beams.
but if he looks up he'll have to take his eyes off shu. shu who does not plan on letting himself get killed in in the same way viktor was. the dark is both a blessing and a curse here, he can melt into it, keep hidden but he can't get too far away or he'll lose sight of eunhyuk. eunhyuk who can just blast the area visible whenever he wants to.
so he darts backwards, into the shadows, chasing them rather than letting himself be illuminated more than he has to. eunhyuk might see him in that moment, but what he'll see is shu letting another arrow loose from his bow. only when it gets dark again will he grab the axe and make a break for where eunhyuk last stood, but the blade of the axe is forward this time, not the blunt end. ]
[he's too fast. it brings to mind another monster eunhyuk once fought, and isn't this similar? isn't shu a monster? he's human but he's already there, just wearing the skin of one --
but while shu has speed on his side, eunhyuk is effectively pinned by the arrow in his thigh, and the next one comes for him too, slicing across his neck.
this isn't working, he can't kill shu like this. it's that thought that resounds in his mind as shu comes lunging out of the shadows, axe aloft, and it's why eunhyuk lunges forward to meet it, letting it bite deep into his shoulder and chest.
he casts heal immediately to keep himself conscious, and then forms another light -- sending a spear of it towards shu's abdomen now that he's in range -- ]
[ eunhyuk, you're starting to run low on magic, by the way.
running out of magic is a terrible feeling. it's exhausting, it's draining. (the worst things about the nanites, is feeling like this every day.) it's because you're putting your entire heart and soul into each spell that you cast.
your spells come from aelfric, eunhyuk - the god of truth. someone told you that once, right? the truth is ugly, but that doesn't mean it's something to shy away from. you live your life so similarly. you make the hard choices no one else wants to, because you have to, because you care.
look for the truth, a voice says, ancient and wisened, somewhere in the back of your head. it melts into a more familiar one. eunyoo's voice, so familiar. you can't drown her out this time. look for the truth, oppa.
if i did not get that correct than blame tv tropes. anyway. with a 17, when you look at shu - the blackness of his eyes. the transformative state. was it ever even there? are you sure this is what you want to do?
are you sure this is how things are supposed to be?
shu. when your next hit strikes eunhyuk, he'll feel dazed - the cupid's bow arrow confuses him. what a useful ability. as far as you know, he's still trying to kill you. ]
[ eunhyuk, having an epiphany, and shu like "that's nice for you, i'ma continue"
well, he can't dodge that at this range. he can twist himself so it doesn't cut straight through the middle of his stomach, but he can't stop the light from spearing him through the side. it's not like he can do anything smart like keep the weapon in, prevent the blood loss--
it's just light. what do you do with that? ... but it's light. it's burning and it sears and it cauterises as it damages. he's wounded but they both get a blast of the scent of burnt flesh as the spear of light pierced and sears his skin in one go. it's agonisingly painful -- but it's not like he can stop.
scarecrow divebombs eunhyuk at machfuck, blasting magic at parts of his body that are already wounded, damage upon damage. shu's able to swing his elbow up to try and crack into eunhyuk's chin. if he can knock him back, he can get some distance between them. they have items, he vaguely remembers. whether they can undo something like a holy gutting, he's not sure. but-- he has to try. ]
it's hard to listen, his wounds from every hit prior opening farther, bleeding faster thanks to every sweep of scarecrow's wings, but the voice arrests him. eunyoo pleading with him, eunyoo never pleads but she always, always tells you to look at the truth.
he's so disoriented that shu's elbow lands with a solid hit, he can only see stars as he lands hard on the ground, trying to breathe. but he can't, the hits keep coming even as he lies prone on the ground, purple fog wisping around him.
...look for the truth. he can barely see. he never wanted things to go this way. he doesn't want this. is shu a monster or not? can he explain this brief moment of clarity? he grits his teeth, spell already building in him, he only has enough breathe to gasp]
-- Stop.
[it's a plea, an attempt to get shu to stop but eunhyuk's staff is glowing brighter anyway, making his words a mockery. because if shu doesn't stop then that means he'll have to stop him himself. if shu lunges forward then eunhyuk only has one spell left --
he doesn't want to die. he wants to save others but he doesn't want to die. eunyoo would understand, wouldn't she? the light builds and builds, unleashing a cataclysm.]
sacred effulgence is a hell of a spell. it's unbelievably, ridiculously strong - when you cast it, even with your deeply low SP, you can feel it rising up in you. the heat of the holy light is agonizing, enough to blow your hair backwards from your face, enough to scorch everything.
for shu, there is no surviving this spell. not at that close of a range. eunhyuk goes off like a bomb - you have never felt any pain like it. it would turn you to ashes, if you were a monster. (but the thing is, you aren't a monster. you're a person, a human being, an uninfected, untouched human being. you have made so many mistakes in your life, but you are not a monster.)
the light blots out the purple fog as it expands outwards. it wipes out the trees, the mud, the forest itself. something shrieks, somewhere deep down these awful paths, a pained, monstrous noise, but it doesn't matter. light whites out your vision, too, eunhyuk, and you think, maybe... maybe this is it. maybe, hearing eunyoo's voice in your ears is what you deserve when you must be dying.
as the whole world around you whites out, though, you hear another voice. it's dahut's actually - warm and cheerful. Being responsible doesn't mean you can hold up your entire world alone, you know...! he says, light, warm. and again, the soft urging of that wise, elder voice, the one you heard at the very beginning of your time in solistia.
[ shu, for you, everything definitely goes black. you realize, in this moment, that you are going to die. that this is it for you. when you close your eyes in the face of the blast, it hits you so hard that you're not sure you even have time to breathe in one last goodbye. there's nothing poetic about it. one moment, you're fighting for your life, and the next?
(people exit our lives so quickly. one minute she was there, and the next she was gone. and all you've done is chase her targets, piece by piece. what would yang say? what would teuta say? does it matter?
was eunhyuk ever actually going to kill you at all? )
and the next moment, shu lyn o'keefe is dead.
shu, you find yourself floating somewhere in the space between consciousness and unconsciousness. the brief moment between life and death. the world around you, as far as you know is blue. everything is so, so blue.
what are you thinking, in this void space? what's on your mind? or... on your immortal soul? ]
--
[ for eunhyuk, everything goes black.
or... does it?
your body hits the ground, and the sheer force of it wakes you up gasping. eunhyuk, you're conscious! you find yourself staring up over your head at an extremely tall ceiling of the interior of some kind of a temple. the air is hot and thick, like you've suddenly walked into the tropics. (you've really been all over the world, huh?)
your sacrifice destroyed the forest - and in that, you are rewarded. your injuries are... awful, but you don't think you're dying. at least not anymore? not only that, but some of your magic energy has been restored to you. it's not a lot, but you might be able to heal if you need to, and you realize, with full clarity, something else.
what you saw take over shu wasn't real.
the voices you heard - none of those were real.
when you look to your left, the second body in this temple is shu. you can see the burns you caused him - his entire body, blackened and charred, the radiant burns luminous even still in the completely pitch black temple you've found yourselves in. he lokos like he's not moving. not even breathing.
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there's still the hand on his waist, so he tries using the lantern there too. let go let go let go]
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it's time for bonks! he brings his lantern in and whaps the shit out the hand on his waist, and it does not like that. but it's still holding fast, and --
well - there might be someone coming to your aid...]
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leave their omega alone. ]
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IN THIS ONE SHU MATERIALIZES OUT OF NOWHERE? the claws are still digging in his back, but he's ignoring the pain, he'll try another spell to blast them off him]
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he jumps out of the shadows - a head comes rolling out after him? hmm, concerning! but there's not much time to waste because shit is happening. shu, as you slam your leg into the hand, you will release that maybe physical combat is not the way to go with this thing, because it grabs onto your leg, lifts you in the air, and just slams you down into the ground. the force is tremendous - you feel something crack - and a clawed hand grabs your arm, pinning it into the ground.
however i rolled a 1 so eunhyuk, your next spell - again, holy light, is bright and blazing. it seems these things really do not like your light spells. perhaps they are weak to them. maybe it's the fact that you are smiting them like god.
but your holy ladle summons aelfric's might and hits a huge branch of the shadowy hands right at the root. it explodes, sending awful purple shadow glop everywhere, across both of your bodies, and the resulting feel is like, not great! it's not great. but, it does take care of a huge chunk of the hands. three remain - one is grabbing onto shu and trying to drag him downwards into - to something.
eunhyuk, when you look up, you see that shu's eyes are pitch black. doesn't that look familiar? ]
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well. does he have his hands free? he might not be able to do much seeing as physical combat seems to be a bad idea and something is definitely, probably broken now, but he's a hunter not a cleric so he doesn't have much choice. and he's not sending scarecrow in there because he's just a lil guy.
so if his hands are free enough he's going to try and get an arrow loose and stab it into the hand grabbing hold of him. sure, he might get wreck again but that's going to at least make it flinch. hopefully.
the holy light's nice though. more of that. ]
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Eunhyuk raises his staff -- and freezes. He can't look at any rolling HEADS right now because his attention narrows in on the black in Shu's eyes,
and the panic immediately makes him loose another spell, aimed at the hand coiled around Shu's arm.]
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eunhyuk, you're still doing ok on your magic. you're a pretty high level cleric - though you do start to get the sense that you're maybe at the halfway point? things to keep in mind. if you think about that.
if you're not thinking about it, then disregard! but otherwise, you cast that spell like aelfric's faithful. holy light, again, bursts free from your ladle. and lord, thanks for it, because you are smart enough to realize (you think?) that that blackness might have just been a trick of the light. your spell is well aimed with an 18 - it smashes into the hand on his arm and the monster recoils backwards, shrieking.
that's it, for the hands. the one around shu's waist shrivels as its stabbed and recoils backwards, and panting, bleeding and burnt, you appear to be alright.
eunhyuk, you didn't hit him with a spell, but you just can't shake it. you saw it. his eyes were blackened. maybe it wasn't a trick of the light after all. You have to do what's right. something says, softly, It's kill or be killed. ]
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thank you for the facial frostburn.
if the hand clinging to shu is finally repelled with a blast of eunhyuk's holy hand grenade, he'll take a moment to shake his head and try to get his bearings. how bright is it around here now? is it still that overwhelming darkness and blanketing of the senses?
he has no idea eunhyuk is about to go feral on his ass, so he's just assessing the situation, making sure his bird is still hanging on in there. normal things. ]
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future? He looks down at Shu, he very rudely does not offer him a hand up. Instead, he's holding his staff with a white-knuckled grip, the other clutching the lantern.
If he's running out of magic, then he can use fire. Fire is the best way, the only way.
But if Shu isn't there yet, then he can still take him down. He could strike him on the head, like he did once very recently, hammer in hand. Hammer -- ....]
...Can you stand?
[are you mobile? can you fight? how fast does eunhyuk have to be? can he be? he holds up the lantern to look Shu over more closely,]
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getting rid of that monster didn't stop it. in fact, it's worse. the path is still ahead of you, you think, and the air is still silent. scarecrow has gone completely still, but he's staring at eunhyuk. and shu...
shu, eunhyuk is dangerous. you know that. you remember, don't you? what he did to viktor? viktor was just with you, and now he's gone. eunhyuk murdered him, after all, in cold blood. what if you're next? don't you want to get out of here?
and eunhyuk... that's right.
you remember. you remember the weight and heft of a hammer in your hand. you were fighting a monster, weren't you? an awful monster, someone who had transformed beyond all control. someone who would have killed the entire eudora, if you let them. but you didn't let them. you never do, no matter how unpopular it is, even if you start turning yourself. that's what a leader does.
shu's eyes flicker when you look at him closer in the lanternlight. black, again, and then gone, back to normal. he's got these purple marks across his face now. those could have come from the magic, but you remember what happened to alpates just before you ended up in this awful place, right? how it consumed her. how she was tied up. maybe she was dangerous, a threat, after all.
a monster. ]
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something's wrong.
he'd said to someone, a while ago now -- longer than this, before all this. "it's not like I want to die, and I'm not planning on it anytime soon, either." no one gets to choose the day that they die -- it's always a surprise, never when you want it. but sometimes, you can make the choice to fight and try to live a little longer.
he shifts his hand behind him, like he's trying to see if he can push himself upright. he's not. he's grabbing the handle of his axe (thank you sisi) ]
... Maybe. Might need a moment.
[ what will eunhyuk do? there are so many things either of them could do right now -- but whatever it is, eunhyuk will have to swing down if he's like this. and he can work with that. ]
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...But they hadn't done it right. Not with just a sword through the chest. If they'd burned her body properly, then none of them would be here in the first place. He and Shu wouldn't be trapped in this forest. They'd still be in that cavern, along with everyone else. But it's too late to lament. He simply has to make up for all those mistakes.
His grip tightens -- the first sign -- and then he casts his spell, holy light directly at Shu.
(powers borrowed from a source that would never do harm, but sometimes you have to use whatever you have to, sometimes you need to use something life-saving to cause harm.
let it at least end in one strike.)]
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well!!! time to beat the shit out of each other for a while!!
actually here's some real battle music. ) ]
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well.
it's not the swing down he was expecting, but it is an opening move so. he waits-- and then everything explodes into action all at once. scarecrow shoots up into the air like a lightning bolt, away from the holy light. once he hits a specific height, shu whistles once, sharply, and he lets loose a blast of magic at where eunhyuk is stood.
shu moves at the same time as scarecrow. there's more of him to move, and-- well. he's fast but the holy light of the lord is apparently a little faster, so he has to grit his teeth and power on through the searing, burning sensation as his left arm takes the blunt of the hit. he can feel the skin blister and burn, but has no time to stop and think about it.
his axe is in his right hand, and when scarecrow attacks he takes the opportunity to dart forwards and aim the blunt end of the axe at eunhyuk's face. ]
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and then shu is on top of him. the blow lands even as he rears backward to try and avoid it, if that had been the sharp side then he would be dead, luckily(?) for him -- all it does is break his glasses in two, the snap echoing, pieces scattering to who knows where.
then the bolt of magic from scarecrow hits him right after, throwing him off his feet and onto the ground, smoking slightly, nice and crispy. that should be really it, but eunhyuk persists, taking the lantern in hand and lobbing it in what he thinks is scarecrow's direction but HE'S NEARSIGHTED AS FCK!!! anyway this is animal abuse and i hate it here.
luckily shu is closer, and he's not so blind that he can't make the shape of him -- he sends a smaller blast of holy light at him, in the form of several sharp spikes]
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breaking eunhyuk's glasses wasn't quite what he was going for, but it's something -- if he wears them, then he can't see in some way shape or form and that's an advantage. getting a distance between the two of them, he sets his axe down and whips out his bow and arrow. it's not the same as a gun, but the principle of the whole thing, the focus, the aiming. he understands that. his hands are steady as he holds the bow and aims, and fires one arrow, and then another quickly afterwards.
but it's not as fast as a gun would be, leaving him exposed when eunhyuk sends spikes of light after him. he rolls to one side, but it's not fast enough to avoid getting nicked on his right arm around shoulder level and one spike catches him full on through the side, plunging in through skin and muscle and sending his roll into more of an injured sprawl. one that he's quick to grit his teeth through the pain off and push to his feet when scarecrow completes his divebomb from early.
right onto eunhyuk's head, flapping his wings once, twice, before darting back up into the sky. ]
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the second should land in his chest, it would be poetic, but eunhyuk doesn't want poetic. it skims his shoulder instead as he rolls to avoid it he needs to put shu down, even like this with burns and skewered he's too strong. he has to kill him,
and then scarecrow lands, talons gouging down the side of his face, across his eye, and he grits his teeth, trying to decide -- heal? or -- no, he can take it -- he blasts another light, enveloping the area. harmless, but blinding. a desperate attempt to even the playing field --]
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but if he looks up he'll have to take his eyes off shu. shu who does not plan on letting himself get killed in in the same way viktor was. the dark is both a blessing and a curse here, he can melt into it, keep hidden but he can't get too far away or he'll lose sight of eunhyuk. eunhyuk who can just blast the area visible whenever he wants to.
so he darts backwards, into the shadows, chasing them rather than letting himself be illuminated more than he has to. eunhyuk might see him in that moment, but what he'll see is shu letting another arrow loose from his bow. only when it gets dark again will he grab the axe and make a break for where eunhyuk last stood, but the blade of the axe is forward this time, not the blunt end. ]
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but while shu has speed on his side, eunhyuk is effectively pinned by the arrow in his thigh, and the next one comes for him too, slicing across his neck.
this isn't working, he can't kill shu like this. it's that thought that resounds in his mind as shu comes lunging out of the shadows, axe aloft, and it's why eunhyuk lunges forward to meet it, letting it bite deep into his shoulder and chest.
he casts heal immediately to keep himself conscious, and then forms another light -- sending a spear of it towards shu's abdomen now that he's in range -- ]
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running out of magic is a terrible feeling. it's exhausting, it's draining. (the worst things about the nanites, is feeling like this every day.) it's because you're putting your entire heart and soul into each spell that you cast.
your spells come from aelfric, eunhyuk - the god of truth. someone told you that once, right? the truth is ugly, but that doesn't mean it's something to shy away from. you live your life so similarly. you make the hard choices no one else wants to, because you have to, because you care.
look for the truth, a voice says, ancient and wisened, somewhere in the back of your head. it melts into a more familiar one. eunyoo's voice, so familiar. you can't drown her out this time. look for the truth, oppa.
if i did not get that correct than blame tv tropes. anyway. with a 17, when you look at shu - the blackness of his eyes. the transformative state. was it ever even there? are you sure this is what you want to do?
are you sure this is how things are supposed to be?
shu. when your next hit strikes eunhyuk, he'll feel dazed - the cupid's bow arrow confuses him. what a useful ability. as far as you know, he's still trying to kill you. ]
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well, he can't dodge that at this range. he can twist himself so it doesn't cut straight through the middle of his stomach, but he can't stop the light from spearing him through the side. it's not like he can do anything smart like keep the weapon in, prevent the blood loss--
it's just light. what do you do with that? ... but it's light. it's burning and it sears and it cauterises as it damages. he's wounded but they both get a blast of the scent of burnt flesh as the spear of light pierced and sears his skin in one go. it's agonisingly painful -- but it's not like he can stop.
scarecrow divebombs eunhyuk at machfuck, blasting magic at parts of his body that are already wounded, damage upon damage. shu's able to swing his elbow up to try and crack into eunhyuk's chin. if he can knock him back, he can get some distance between them. they have items, he vaguely remembers. whether they can undo something like a holy gutting, he's not sure. but-- he has to try. ]
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it's hard to listen, his wounds from every hit prior opening farther, bleeding faster thanks to every sweep of scarecrow's wings, but the voice arrests him. eunyoo pleading with him, eunyoo never pleads but she always, always tells you to look at the truth.
he's so disoriented that shu's elbow lands with a solid hit, he can only see stars as he lands hard on the ground, trying to breathe. but he can't, the hits keep coming even as he lies prone on the ground, purple fog wisping around him.
...look for the truth. he can barely see. he never wanted things to go this way. he doesn't want this. is shu a monster or not? can he explain this brief moment of clarity? he grits his teeth, spell already building in him, he only has enough breathe to gasp]
-- Stop.
[it's a plea, an attempt to get shu to stop but eunhyuk's staff is glowing brighter anyway, making his words a mockery. because if shu doesn't stop then that means he'll have to stop him himself. if shu lunges forward then eunhyuk only has one spell left --
he doesn't want to die. he wants to save others but he doesn't want to die. eunyoo would understand, wouldn't she? the light builds and builds, unleashing a cataclysm.]
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sacred effulgence is a hell of a spell. it's unbelievably, ridiculously strong - when you cast it, even with your deeply low SP, you can feel it rising up in you. the heat of the holy light is agonizing, enough to blow your hair backwards from your face, enough to scorch everything.
for shu, there is no surviving this spell. not at that close of a range. eunhyuk goes off like a bomb - you have never felt any pain like it. it would turn you to ashes, if you were a monster. (but the thing is, you aren't a monster. you're a person, a human being, an uninfected, untouched human being. you have made so many mistakes in your life, but you are not a monster.)
the light blots out the purple fog as it expands outwards. it wipes out the trees, the mud, the forest itself. something shrieks, somewhere deep down these awful paths, a pained, monstrous noise, but it doesn't matter. light whites out your vision, too, eunhyuk, and you think, maybe... maybe this is it. maybe, hearing eunyoo's voice in your ears is what you deserve when you must be dying.
as the whole world around you whites out, though, you hear another voice. it's dahut's actually - warm and cheerful. Being responsible doesn't mean you can hold up your entire world alone, you know...! he says, light, warm. and again, the soft urging of that wise, elder voice, the one you heard at the very beginning of your time in solistia.
My cleric. The truth lies in the flame.
and then everything goes black. ]
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(people exit our lives so quickly. one minute she was there, and the next she was gone. and all you've done is chase her targets, piece by piece. what would yang say? what would teuta say? does it matter?
was eunhyuk ever actually going to kill you at all? )
and the next moment, shu lyn o'keefe is dead.
shu, you find yourself floating somewhere in the space between consciousness and unconsciousness. the brief moment between life and death. the world around you, as far as you know is blue. everything is so, so blue.
what are you thinking, in this void space? what's on your mind? or... on your immortal soul? ]
--
[ for eunhyuk, everything goes black.
or... does it?
your body hits the ground, and the sheer force of it wakes you up gasping. eunhyuk, you're conscious! you find yourself staring up over your head at an extremely tall ceiling of the interior of some kind of a temple. the air is hot and thick, like you've suddenly walked into the tropics. (you've really been all over the world, huh?)
your sacrifice destroyed the forest - and in that, you are rewarded. your injuries are... awful, but you don't think you're dying. at least not anymore? not only that, but some of your magic energy has been restored to you. it's not a lot, but you might be able to heal if you need to, and you realize, with full clarity, something else.
what you saw take over shu wasn't real.
the voices you heard - none of those were real.
when you look to your left, the second body in this temple is shu. you can see the burns you caused him - his entire body, blackened and charred, the radiant burns luminous even still in the completely pitch black temple you've found yourselves in. he lokos like he's not moving. not even breathing.
what do you do?
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