Fantasy Time to Make a Change (Kapowne)

[Kapowne]

Alex listened closely as Zona explained the difference between sylphs and their tails, and sylph tails..... at least Zona seemed to find it funny while Alex just found it kind of stupid... but also a little funny. “So you’re telling me, that people hunt for Sylphs; and their tails, for medicinal properties, and also these monstrous armored beasts that some idiot happened to name ‘sylph tails’? Despite them being nothing like a sylph, or said tails? That’s just Grrrreeeeeaaaaat....” Alex mocked, at least some things in here didn’t make sense too. One thing their homes definitely had in common.


“No, no listings for sylphs.” Alex continued, answering Zona’s question. “Went to the bestiary under ‘sylph’ since I assumed we were hunting something for its ‘tail’... that’s what I get for assuming right?” Alex chuckled, following along with Zona and the two fairies.


The two walked for awhile, hiking along through nature towards their hunting destination. Alex spent much of the time just taking in everything there was to see. New flowers, new bugs, new birds, new sounds, new animals. Every so often he would stop them to ask what something was, his curiosity unquenching.


As they started to get closer Alex decided to devote more of his conscious mind to considering tactic. He was new to fighting like this, and his weapon was fairly versatile, it would be a shame not to use it correctly. He decided he might as well use the one resource he had for everything. Perhaps knowing more about Zona wouldn’t be a bad thing either.


“So, I was wondering, why did you decide to use a bow? Did you try a couple things out first and settle on that? You’re pretty agile, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you could use other weapons, right?” Alex asked, curious about how she came to use her weapon. Any insight might help him with deciding how to use his.

 

[Wandering Fae]

​

Zona shrugged and laughed at Alex's response to what Sylph Tails actually were and gave a slightly embarrassed smile as if the person who named the creatures somehow embarrassed all mortal races with their stupidity. "Yeah, some people have a weird sense of humor, there have been several people who have petitioned to have monster names changed, but in the spirit of fairness and tradition, they let the names stand. I can call them Umra's Minions all I want personally but officially they will always be Sylph Tails." She said with a sigh. "I mean suppose on one end they had the displeasure of encountering them first and therefore they have earned the right to call them what they want, but part of me just...wonders what the hell they were thinking when they typed in that name." She said as they continued in their way, talking and stopping every now and then so she could explain different kinds of plants, flowers, and animals to him, Avalon, really did seem like an entirely different world for him.

When he asked why she used a bow, she thought about it for a moment "Well, yeah I tried a few. I started with daggers but decided I needed a long-range weapon…kinda hard to cut a flying enemy with a blade and cutting some enemies is just completely out of the question so started trying some things out, at first I tried some firearms but they were...a bit too loud for me, sure spells can be noisy but they don't telegraph where I am. I'm a stealthy kind of person, I'm fast, I'm light and I'm quiet, I like to get rid of my targets or at least knock them off balance before they really have a chance to react to me, with a bow I can be very precise where I hit my targets. I have to break a monster's entire shell, I just need to know where its vitals are and pierce its shell. I usually don't need to switch from the bow, but I do have other weapons or tools at least. I also use talisman shields and tripcasters." She said walking along as continued to make their way towards where the Sylph Tails had been spotted when she noticed a grouping of plants that seemed to have been recently eaten, Sylph Tails were carnivores so she knew it wasn't them...besides whatever it was left behind seemingly sticky purple, mucus-like saliva.

"Not sure what that is, but I'm almost certain it's toxic so...don't touch it unless you want to waste an antidote, " When she noticed some webbing up ahead. "Ugh...well, good news is we're getting close...bad news is...we're getting close." When she noticed some webbing up ahead. "Ugh...well, good news is we're getting close...bad news is...we're getting close." She said once again showing her disdain for these creatures.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

Alex nodded along as Zona explained the various answers to his various questions. Though he found her reasoning behind choosing the bow to be particularly interesting. Not for any special reason mind you, just that for some reason whenever she talked about herself, he found himself more tuned in. She was interesting, and he didn’t know why.


“I guess we all have our own fighting styles, and from what I’ve seen, that one definitely suits you. Though to be honest I’m not sure you’re going to need those talismans. Since im here now, you won’t have to worry about getting hit for awhile!” Alex said confidentially, even going so far as to offer a sly wink. “I think my gunblade and I here, will manage to attract plenty of attention.” Alex added, teaching up to slide his fingers across the metal grip that pointed upward from behind his shoulder. “I’m thinking I’m going to start making some repairs and adjustments tonight. Or at least familiarizing myself with it enough that I might be able to do it in the future.” Alex shrugged “won’t know till I try.”


As they continued walking and talking they finally happened across he hunting grounds, denoted webs and ooze that littered the ground. Zona said it probably wasn’t from the sylph tails, but if it wasn’t, who the heck else could it be from?


With blade brandished in hand, Alex took the lead as they approached. Since the bestiary had plenty of reference images on the sylph tails, he hadn’t been surprised by the grotesque, scaled beasts that wandered for pretty before them. Four in total. They looked like armored scorpions with tails that appeared to be practically begging to pierce something.


“You ready?” Alex turned and asked Zona, wanting to make sure she was set to go. Of course he wasn’t even sure he was ready to go yet. These sylph tails were certainly the scariest looking things he’d seen yet, not to mention they were fucking huge! He’d have loved to show a picture of one of these to someone with a big phobia back home....


Wandering Fae

 

[Wandering Fae]

​

Zona smiled, offering a laugh to his silly antics, almost feeling herself blush a little when he winked at her as she playfully rolled her eyes, pushing the boy by his shoulder, not enough to really move him, just a playful gesture. She nodded and smiled as the boy mentioned her not needing her talisman shields anymore now that he was there drawing all the attention. She wasn't entirely sure if that was true seeing as how he was new but he was making pretty good progress. However, this did give her a thought.

As he readied himself and asked her if she was ready, she reached in her bag and pulled something out. That looked like a watch only it seemed to be some kind of slap bracelet with a stone bearing some kind of faintly glowing symbol on it. "Just a second, hold still." She said, putting on the wrist of his less dominant hand.

"If you're going to be the tank then I guess you'll need a shield, now these talismans are usually more my style of shield but I think with your fighting style they might work too, see they work best when partying than outright blocking, but people with the kind of sword you have usually tend to parry anyway. The good news is talismans are 100% completely weightless so you don't have to worry about them weighing you down. When you successfully parry it hits your target with whatever damage it's enchanted with, this one does fire." She said and held up her wrist, showing him one of her own that in concept looked the same but was clearly, slightly different. "This one does lightning, but I might not need it with you around right?" She said, smiling at him encouragingly as she tapped her stone against his, not for any special reason more a gesture of solidarity, that they were in this together as cheesy as it sounded.

She looked around, jumping in the trees seemed like a no go this time, not with all the webs around so she'd just have to stand back and give cover fire. "So here is the thing, their webs are pretty sticky and strong, they can slow you down and they aren't easy to cut through, but they're easy to burn away. If they sting you, I'll have Bella cleanse you, but just in case she can't for some reason an antidote should do the trick." She said when she nodded to Bellatrix and Cursa. Bellatrix would then recast her protection and barrier spells upon the two of them, while Cursa cast speed and attack boost spell and waited for Alex to make his move, assuming she would be going with him like last time while Zona readied her bow.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

Alex looked at the strange talisman that now hung from his left wrist, it almost looked like some plain old jewelry, but the faint red glow told him it definitely wasn’t. And the fact that it automatically activated whenever he parried? He hadn’t the faintest idea who could possibly have enacted such specific perimeters to an item like this, but so long as it worked as instructed.... he didn’t care.


“Almost sounds like you’re worried?” Alex nudged suggestively at Zona as she explained a few of the sylph tails abilities. He had already read, and reread the bestiary for them while they walked, but it was nice to be reminded of the finer points right before battle. “But you got it, webs? Stay out of em!” Alex added again, giving a thumbs up before turning back to the sylphs who hadn’t yet noticed them approaching.


“Let’s go cursa! I’m hoping to get a good surprise attack on them!” Alex said as he took off running.

The four sylph tails were fairly interested in something and huddled face first around it. Alex didn’t know what it was, and didn’t care. They had a job to do, and if they were distracted, that honestly worked for the better! Knowing that these things had dangerous webs, stingers and shells harder than could be cut through, Alex figured he would need to use shells damn near constantly, and so did. Pointing his blade behind him as before, he fired his first round, which, timed with a jump, sent him flying forward with a decent boost. He swung the blade upwards as the first of the sylph tails turned toward him, likely investigating the loud gunshot. As his sword swung reach its apex, he fired another round, bringing it downward with extra force. The blade slammed into the sylph rail, slicing into its chitinous exterior only to come to an almost instantaneous halt.


“Woah” Alex said as he tried to pull the blade free, only to find it unwilling to budge. The sylph tail hissed loudly, it’s small arms flailing to free itself from this new predator. It’s tail quickly reared it’s point, stabbing it around Alex, who was only barely able to dodge as he tried to pull his weapon free. Finally though, he fired another round, which shook the blade just enough to free it from its prison, though only a second too late, as the stinger pierced his left leg, hot searing pain quickly shot out from the wound. “Damn it!” Alex yelled out as he swung his blade at the stinger, cutting the top part clean off, gross green goop splurting all over the scene.

Wandering Fae

 

[Wandering Fae]

​

Zona stood back and watched as Alex went in to attack the ill-named Sylph Tails, she was fairly impressed with his use of shells being a beginner and all, most wouldn't think to use them like that this early. These Sylph Tails seemed to have particularly hard shells, harder than any she'd seen before but still seemingly softer than a Mesmer seeing as how it could still be cut into without weakening the shell first, even if it wasn't by much. "Hmm, I guess the Sylph Tails in Westeriam are a little tougher than most...should probably add that to the Bestiary when we're done here." She said to herself as she watched anxiously as Alex managed to dodge the first Sylph Tail's stinger...until the end when he was stabbed in the leg, there was rarely a time when they didn't inject poison with their stings and unfortunately, she didn't buy any tonic unlike antidotes, tonic prevented one from being poisoned for a certain amount of time while antidotes were only useful after being poisoned, given they still got rid of it but still.

Bellatrix didn't waste any time before the girl could even process worrying about the boy the fairy cast a cleaning spell, surrounding the boy instantly in what appears to be magical blue wind checking around him to lift the poison. Like antidotes, cleansing spells also couldn't be used if there was nothing wrong with the target but it did grant a bit of resistance afterward albeit for a short amount of time.

Zona drew back her bow, preparing another spell, there were five of them, so all she had to do was use five. She looked around the field she now started to glow pale blue, pulsing every couple of seconds. A blue magic circle appeared on the head of the Sylph Tail closest to Alex and them on slowly but surely one appeared on the other four when she finally released the spell shooting off a magical arrow made of pale blue light, that split into five that spiraled out and hit the grotesque creatures, freezing them over and bringing their movements to a near standstill.

"Is he?" Zona blushed slightly as she began to ask if he was alright only to be interrupted by Bellatrix.

"Trust me...I know what I'm doing." Bellatrix said casting a healing spell on his wounded leg, the blue magical winds relaxed by a bright green. After all, moving around on a wounded leg was sure not to be hard so she saw fit to fix it. Meanwhile, Cursa flew around the battlefield leaving behind orange sunset-colored butterflies with fire flowing off their wings, it would be clear that this was fire dust as Cursa smirked at him mischievously.

"Well? Come on then, musn't keep the lady waiting now, should we? That would be embarrassing." She said, somehow some kind of way and encouraging him whilst simultaneously teasing him for her own amusement at the same time.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

In the span of just a few moments Alex looked down to see a busted stinger sticking out of his thigh, excruciating pain erupting like a volcano, hot blood pouring down his leg. Another of the beasts looked to take advantage of the opportunity, and reared it’s own tail for a finishing blow, only to be interrupted by a sudden outburst of hard blue ice, encasing it and the others in a frozen cage. Alex wasted no time in pulling the stinger from his leg, and as he did so, a cool breeze buffeted him, giving him renewed energy, and taking the pain away. It was pleasant and satisfying. He designed to even close his eyes a moment as the breeze enveloped him and cured his wounds.


Cursa’s voice broke through his bliss and awoke him to his current task once more.

"Well? Come on then, musn't keep the lady waitingnow, should we? That would be embarrassing."


“Couldn’t have said it better myself cursa!” Alex muttered as he saw the red butterflies fluttering about the enemies. He gripped the hilt of his blade, inner fire newly ablaze, and leveled it to the nearest butterfly, shooting it cleanly with a single shot.


The chain reaction was just as brilliant as it was before. Hot red fire erupted from them, encircling he frozen beasts with painful burns. The screeched loudly as Alex took a fighting stance. His blade held awkwardly in both hands. Any true swordsman would know immediately that he was an amateur, which would make sense given his only recent experience.


The ice melted much faster than Alex had anticipated. resulting in a half frozen, half burned, pissed off monster. Alex wasted no time in resuming his assault. They were vulnerable now, and his job was to keep them attracted to him, and not Zona. With an awkward forward dash, Alex slammed his blade into the side of the sylph tail who had reared it’s tail at him, his blade finding purchase as its scales were heavily weakened. Hot goop spilled forth, green and smelly all over his blade and arms. With another screech the sylph tail crashed its claw roughly into his side. The damage hadn’t been severe, in fact, it might have been negligible. However it had pushed him several feet, into the claws of yet another sylph tail, which attempted to clamp its claw around his mid section. Alex though, was still holding his gunblade in both hands, and as such was able to easily reorientate it between the claw and himself, resulting in a broken claw, as it attempted to crush him.


Now that they were frozen and burned, their scales were much much easier to cut through! Though none of his attacks had been killing blow, he figured Zona could handle that part fairly easily!

Wandering Fae