Meet the Landers: Tri-Edge

    Days. Weeks. Hopefully not months, right? The whole trip from the Palace Lands these shards were in the warhorse's inventory. Almost back home, Proteus insists to 'not combine shards' and yet.. and YET. NOTHING. HAS. WORKED. NOTHING. All kinds of scans, attempts to use in different ways, and yet the engima of these shards has amounted to absolutley NOTHING.

    So. With another day done, and another night about to pass, Arashi is of the mind to say 'screw it'. It's like in that old movie where the scientist insisted to NEVER CROSS THE STREAMS and yet to win the day they had to risk annihilation and do exactly what they were told not to do. "Time to cross the damn streams. I'm sick of this," she mutters before trying to touch the shards to each other, or even combine them in some way. She wasn't exactly a trades-person. Map making, sure. Lockpicking? Wouldn't help. Maybe try to smash them against each other? Combine in inventory? Something had to work. "Puzzle pieces.. ugh. What kind of puzzle only has two pieces?!"

Shiruba sighs softly. While it wasn't unusual to not hear much from Arashi time to time, Shiruba had gotten a feeling that it was more than just the Dire Shire keeping her distance from groups. So out of consern she'd set aside her own projects for a day and made her way up to the one place that she knew to eventually find the mare. Fortunately Arashi was actually there. Unfortunately, she was fixated on something else entirely. To the point that Shiruba, who wasn't the most gifted in stealth, at the time had almost walked up on her unnoticed.

Now the wolfgirl was just watching, sipping some of the coffea she had brought with. "Arashi, please. Getting all worked up on the matter isn't going to help any more than blindly trying to ... do whatever and hope it works."

Giganpor had recently started to keep tabs on Alliance members, and when one doesn't really check in far as activity, that sends red flags. So, that has lead him out this way after a lot of questioning in the Root Town.

Giganpor head-scratches a bit as he approaches. "Hey, Arashi! You out this way?" Normally he would use chimlink, but seriously. It's a war zone sometimes in Alne at the moment. And it was good to get out and about on foot rather than sit back in a cozy chair in an inn somewhere.

Of course, he also has no hunting skills so that brings up the yelling part. General locations suck to search around.

Every now and then Kaydon likes to have a normal night where he's not hunting down undead leadership or defending villages from Palace Lands attacks. He misses the old days of just being able to log in and hang out with friends for a bit and then do a quest or two.

At least he can do the hang out with friends part. Which is why he is sitting next to Shiruba, watching Arashi do her thing with the crystals. He decides to offer a counterpoint, however.

"I've got a sledgehammer if you want it."

Proteus isn't there.

If she were, maybe the imp puzzler could do something about what's about to happen. But no, conveniently, she's out travelling. Where? Here. Why? To see Arashi. The Imp walks along, coming closer with each step but still conveniently narratively far enough away to not know what Arashi is up to. "Why do I have a feeling something terrible is about to happen...?" She murmurs to herself.

It is easy to see two pieces of a puzzle, and believe that the puzzle could be completed with just the two. But there are so many more puzzles out there. So many more pieces, waiting for Arashi. Especially when it comes to these pieces; looking like they are spikes of a railway. The one is dark colored, the other white. She gets this sense that activating them would just require her stabbing them into something, but to combine them is something else.

Laying them against eachother does very little.

Kaydon's offer of a Sledgehammer however, sparks a little bit of a thought into her. The one spike IS larger than the other one. After accepting this, it only makes sense to lay the first spike the longway, put her book over it, and tap the other one against the top end of it... right?

    People. There are people here, now. Shiruba is no surprise, nor is Kaydon truth be told. It's the others that will surprise. ... Or would if she had focus to lend them. "I've been at this for -days-. I'm desperate," she points out to Shiruba before slowly turning toward Kaydon. Sledge. "Gimmie." She can't be serious.

        Oh. She is.

    Could it be so easy? Drive one spike into another? ... Well she didn't exactly have a hammer PREVIOUS so.. it just hadn't occured to her. "We all know this won't work anyway.." SWING. CRACK. . . . Expletives DELETED. There are a lot of them. Does this game have a profanity filter? "Let.. me.. try.. that.. again.." she winces before swinging again.

Ears rise as they hear another familiar voice, sounding a bit lost. "Huh, didn't know who else would wander out here." She turns the other way. "Windburn, go look would you?" The peregrin kees as she spreads her wings and takes off from where she'd perched, heading in the direction of Giganpor's voice. Though it's likely Proteus would see the familiar bird taking flight as well.

Upon seeing it's one of her trainer's friends and not a threat Windbird just circles around, makes a clicking noise at the lion-man, and glides back towards the small camp expecting him to follow.

Shiruba turns back just in time to see Arashi fumble. "See, what did I tell you about being hasty?"

Giganpor, seeing the familiar-ish bird, heads that direction. Then he blinks at the sight. "Umm... what are those, and why are you trying to hammer them together?" He asks towards the group.

Giganpor's at least in his armor for being out this far! Still, that's... not something he's used to seeing. The human form of the lion-man tilts his head one way then the other, as if trying to figure out just what is going on. Oh, he does have a very large hammer, too, in the form his poleaxe.

Kaydon hops up from his seat and pulls the sledgehammer out of his inventory. It's not a FULL SIZE one, just one of the smaller kind you use for forging metal, "If these explode I'm not taking responsibility."

Once she has it, Kaydon moves back to a safe distance, and then pulls a shield out of his inventory and takes a knee behind it, giving Arashi a thumbs up with his other hand.

The soft steps of the Imp continue to move along, coming closer to Arashi as Proteus works her way around the area. She pauses, blinking for a moment as a familiar-looking bird launches into the air. She looks up, eyes squinting under the shadow of her hood while the peregrine circles overhead. "... Ah. I see." She nods. "I guess Arashi isn't alone today." She murmurs to herself, moments before she leaps up onto a ridge, scrabbling about in a slighly undignified way as she pulls herself up.

It's when she does so that she rises, looking down on the camp to see what Arashi is up to, hearing her swearing. Her eyes blink. Focus. Sledge. Spikes. White, Black. "Wait, those are..." She says, and the she yells, "ARASHI! NO!" She throws out a hand, as if she somehow could reach from there and stop her. "STOP!"

She'll greet the others present when she's not locked in a narratively dramatic moment.

The first bite of the smaller spike bites into the larger one as the first swing ends up hitting Arashi's leg after awkwardly having the hammer skate across the spike's top. Then, the hammer goes back. Arashi feels this strange electricity in the air, as the Spike beneath her foot begins to glow. Then the brightness of that light rapidly climbs as the hammer comes down...

Proteus calls out...

DOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

It's like someone just rang a loud gong, and the grass suddenly flows down all around Arashi. A shockwave pulsing out from her. Proteus suddenly feels a tug deep into her chest, and at her gloved hand, as she goes tumbling to the ground in a painful display as something resonates within her for a moment, and <that song> starts to get louder in her mind!

The green light climbs, pressing out in multiple-beams as the spikes begin to merge. Multiple rapid arching lines of green bursting out from the spike being slugged in, the light pulsing through Arashi herself! Some of the beams cutting right through her arms. Flashing about in a radius, beams grabbing at her arms... and lifting Arashi up by them, as if the light itself is two large grabbing hands of green holding her up...

And her arms begin to /dissolve/ like 'flakes' of light, revealing the inner red of damage all across her arms - her pain receptors going at full volume!

As she too, begins to hear something...

    ... Oh. ... Well. ... This is happening. Isn't it? .... At first Arashi doesn't really respond. There's a resounding crash of a gong, the shockwave rushes out, then the lights. The green light pulsating all around Arashi, all around her arms, all -through- her arms, and then it wraps -around- said arms? "... ... Should have listened," she whispers before being lifted. Then? A yell. It's that kind of yell that people rarely hear. Suffering unparalelled. When you tell the doctor its a twelve on the scale of one to ten. Nevermind the -song-. What in blazes is -that- anyway?!

Shiruba holds out an arm for Windburn to land on in proper falconeer fashion. "That's what she's trying to figure out. I think. Putting them together, I mean." Then Proteus yells from the other direction. "I swear Arashi, I have no idea how people are finding your place all of a sudde--"

Cue the DONG to end all dongs, and an explosion of air that sends them all sprawling backwards. "--UHN!" The wolfgirl ends up sprawled backwards, bird landing another meter or so back being a lighter creature and all.

It takes a moment for Shiruba to get out a grunt, a groan, and rub her head with a hand while flopped over. "What the hell was that...." Then she finally sits up enough to get a look at what's going on. Although that scream makes her still ringing ears lay back. "ARASHI?!"

Giganpor looks over at the cry of warning, then turns to try to stop Arashi. At least until the explosion.

Giganpor ends up with a loud *BANG* as he crashes to his back. And lays there for a moment before sitting up. To stare at what he's seeing.

Then he's scrambling to get up, and looking for the spike things that Arashi was messing with. Those have to be the cause, after all!

Kaydon had the shield up, he figured that'd be enough. It was not enough as he finds himself still thrown backwards. Well, maybe he shouldn't have encouraged her to use the hammer after all!

He gets back up as quick as he can, "Arashi!?" He yells out, rushing back forward, shield still attached to his arm for the time being. Hopefully he won't need to use it again

Proteus sees everything happen. It's not like when she did it. She had managed to solve the puzzles, combine them. Arashi is using... brute force. Maybe these pieces are intended to be used that way, but something tells Proteus that it's not really intended.

But whatever is going on, Proteus can't really take the time to analyze. The massive impact creates a shockwave through the World, and there is a grunt from the Imp, one hand going to her chest, even as the other shakes in the air, still outstretched. "What... did you just..."

A moment later, pain crackles through her senses, and she collapses, the Song ringing in her ears as she is disabled in front of that display of destruction. "A... rashi...!" She hisses through her pointed teeth, her tone twisted in pain. She sees what is happening, but she can't intervene. Not right now... Not yet.

That song.

That song gets louder within Arashi's mind.

Controlling. Grabbing at her. Enveloping her. Becoming one with her. It demands, and it gives, as that song resonates with those spikes. Her arms being torn apart, until all of her 'fur' has been ripped off for all to see, all the way up to just beneath her shoulders.

Then, another layer appears. Green ribbons suddenly rush out from those spikes, coiling around her arms... and are then suddenly being pulled taught! One, then the other, lashing around the red region of damage. Coiling around her upper arms, her lower arms, her wrists, her palm, her fingers! A spark of white light bursting off of her, right before she's dropped to the ground and the spikes themselves shatter!

Her arms are fuming with that strange green light. Sparks coming off of them as if they are electrified. To the right, black, to the left, white. Her arms themselves no longer quite look like they hold fur, but look more like that of a marrionette's. Smooth and glistening, for the time being.

Then, not a second later, right at the edge of the gathering...

Red light. A first hew carving horizontal through the landscape itself, against a small hill. Then another coming diagonal... and a third already being produced shortly there-after. It's almost like it's coming from 'behind' the hill's surface itself.

All while Arashi's mind is still droning and her arms are in pain. At least Proteus' can feel the resonance coming to an end, being permitted to stand once more.

    There's ... not much Arashi can do at this point. She began this moment and she will suffer through it regardless of if she wants to or not. The Song, however, booming as it is for her, is the only thing she can really hear. The calls from all gathered do not reach her. She's dealing with her arms going through Full Protonic Reversal. ... Or something. It probably feels like it! She's not even aware of what has happened to them when she's unceremoneously returned to the ground in a heap. There's no getting up as the Song continues. Just a clutching of her head with 'new' hands.

"Arashi, what in the blazing blue hell did you just do?!" Still shouting mostly out of consern for her friend, and because her own ears are still ringing. Even as she grabs her longbow and uses it as a brace against the ground to get back onto her feet. "Everyone.." she scowls at Arashi's new adornment as the were fang huddles. "well obviousnly not ok, is there something less cliche to say at a time like this?" There's a kreening sound from her falcon as Windburn gets her own bearings back. "No, I don't think that's going to work. Please tell me someone has -some- idea what just happened...."

A few moments she stops as Windburn has taken to the air, and starts to "Kak kak kak kak!" repeatedly. This immeadiately gets her to tense, tail doing the bristle effect as she grabs the line of her bow with the other hand. "Oh come on, now what?" Now the peregrine's warning call has gotten her even more on edge.

You know what they say about animals having a better sense of impending danger.

Giganpor looks a little scared by what just happened. "What the hell happened?" He moves forward to get a careful look at Arashi's arms. He shakes his head a few times, "It's like those things replaced her arms. What the hell were those?"

He looks to Shiruba and the others about.

The energies fuse with Arashi, destroying and rebuilding her arms. Altering her... In a familiar way. The pain, the resonance ripples through the Imp in waves, debilitating her as she sees the way that Arashi's body is edited. She closes her eyes and sighs for a moment.

Then the pain begins to ebb, Proteus' body twitching as she begins to pull herself to her feet. "Ggg... Arashi..." She shakes her head. "That wasn't really what you should have...-" Then she blinks, something coming back to her mind. "Oh. Oh hell." She looks around, suddenly straightening as she tries to check for something in particular...

There. On the hill. The three crimson marks. Her eyes widen as raw adrenaline and terror dump into her system.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b6Nq3Ku2Yg

"RUN, YOU FOOLS!" She screams into the camp. "RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! HE IS HERE! GET ARASHI AND RUN! TRI-EDGE IS HERE!"

Not a few moments later, another set of swipes. In deep crimson, on a hill to the west, a diagonal slash, another, and then a horizontal carries through down the center. Breaching the hill.

To their east, a young man with blue hair and orange clothing steps out. There's stitches all across their garb, and they are wielding strange tripple-daggers. Yet something else comes out to their west. Far larger, a brown haired 'giant' of a man steps out. His body seems stitched in the same way as the boy is. Green skin, with areas where his armor and skin is just... black. Not 'black with shading', but purely just 'black', refusing to let any light escape from it.

As the both of them begin to menacingly /approach/ Arashi in specific. Their names unreadable messes of garbled characters.

For a moment there is a look of exasperation on Shiruba's face. Why does trouble always come in groups like this.... However there is no time right now to dwell on the matter and she promptly shifts back into leader mode.

"Kaydon, Giga! One of you get Arashi some help." Get one of the bigger tankier guys to help the disoriented Arashi. "We can figure out what happened to her later!"

An extra glare in Kaydon's direction, just because she's gotten to know him that well. "Don't do anything needlessly brash and reckless!"

If Proteus says they're bad news, they're very likely bad news. Two of them is even worse news.

Of course that said she's not about to run off herself until she's sure someone's got Arashi on the move.

    Arashi - Current Status:
Arms: screaming
Eyes: Closed
Legs: Weak
Breath: Short.
Determination: Rising.

"Screw this nonsense," the mare grunts with a cough, the Song fading and the were-fang struggling to get onto her feet. Voices are -finally- starting to filter in. Panic? That makes sense. "Mph. I'll be fine.." Tri Edge? .... "... Good. Let me punch that PKing bas#474#$ in his face, then between his legs, then his damn face again.." Don't mind her, while she hates PKers she's also not entirely LOGICAL at the moment. She's probably only getting bits and pieces, still.

Hearing the call about Tri-Edge, Giganpor moves to grab his weapon off of his back and reach down to pull out his buckler as well. Turning to look, he also shifts up into his Were-Fang form as he growls. "I don't think it will be that easy, Shiruba."

Something tells him to look towards the one to the east... then instincts have him looking around to gauge their battlefield and he stares towards the west. "Ah... damn it. There's two. And they don't look friendly."

Mentally, he starts calculating. And he tries a last resort.

"Hey! Nice night, uh... listen, can we talk about this? 'Cause what she did was an accident! Seriously!" Yep, Giganpor's trying to negotiate rather than fight. First response, at least.

As someone starts yelling about Tri-Edge, Kaydon's hackles rise. Part of him wants to try his luck. After all sure the guy was powerful, but that was over a year ago. Kaydon's gotten pretty powerful himself since then.

The arm with the hidden blade in the gauntlet twitches for a second, as he considers. Then Shiruba yells at him very specifically. Damn sometimes having friends who know you too well can help, huh?

"No promises!" He yells back at Shiruba, before hefting the shield he had with him and rushing towards Arashi. His sword stays sheathed, his hidden blade stays hidden, and he moves to place himself in between where Tri-Edge and Arashi are, before moving to heft up Arashi onto his shoulders and fireman's carry her out of there, "This is gonna hurt, just a fair warning." He tells her, letting the shield go away in order to better balance her, "Damnit Giganpor, now's not the time! You're not Merek, don't throw your life away pointlessly!"

Things are bad. And then they get worse. Tri-Edge arrives... And then someone else also arrives. Her voice is strangled as she mouths, 'Two!?', and she shakes her head. "ARASHI, YOU IDIOT! YOU ARE GOING TO /DIE/!" Thankfully, Kaydon bludgeons Arashi into some form of sense, and Proteus gestures. "KEEP RUNNING! ARASHI IS THEIR TARGET!" A pause. What if they realized Proteus was actually there? Would they change their attention?

Well, there's no need to go that far yet. Paradox appears in her hand, the brass cube unfolding into the clanking, clockwork-like bow as she draws her bow and tries fire arrows to pin down and slow the pursuit.

With Giganpor halting in front of Tri-Edge in an attempt to halt his approach - to convince - the one who looks like Kite slowly raises his head. There's this strange look on his face. This unreadable expression that looks both sad and like a smile at the same time. His eyes aglow. Getting close, he opens his mouth as if he's about to say something...

Only to suddenly reach out with one hand, the blade remaining near his wrist as he grabs Giganpor's face...

And begins to squeeze, as he brings his other blade back in order to stab him. Only for Proteus' arrows to shear into Tri-Edge. The blasts rip into them, showing red lights across their body... only for the light to simply falter. The physical blows barely having moved Tri-Edge.

The one who looks suspiciously like Orca, a famous player from Fragment, however turns in that moment, looking in confusion at the one known by most as 'Tri-Edge' and whispers. "K... ite?" In confusion. Not a second before the Orca-looking being suddenly rushes forwards and grabs Tri-Edge by the wrist, gripping hard enough that Tri-Edge is forced to release Giganpor from his death-grip!

Tri-Edge seems to 'scream' something unintelligible at the one now holding him, followed by the Orca-looking being shouting something back at them. It's as if they are having some kind of strange argument! Just enough to give the rest a chance to retreat before this 'argument' comes to an end.

Shiruba lowers her bow when the two begins start arguging(?!) with each other instead after Tri-Edge tried to pull a 'GIVE ME YOUR FACE' on Giganpor. Then turns to put her full effort into running. "NOW'S OUR CHANCE. GET HER OUT OF HERE."

Giganpor, after the harrowing encounter, moves back quickly. He wasn't idle while having his face grabbed and was trying to pry off, even use Tooth and Nail that he learned from Rizadoman on the PKer's arm. Nothing seemed to work!

Then he's free suddenly and he leaps backwards as soon as his feet touch the ground again. The poleaxe glows green before Giganpor brings it behind him and around in a sudden mighty swing downwards that results in a low rumble. "RIDDLE OF STEEL!" Those that know him might be confused why he missed with his smithing skill.

The blow spreads to either side of Giganpor's strike in a cracking formation before a wall of stone shoots up as far as he can make them to either side and towards the two PKers. It's rough, but it shows one thing that Giganpor has always been good at. Making something from the very earth and the metals it has. In this case, a stone wall isn't that far fetched compared to smacking the two PKers!

Then he turns to run. "Get going! That won't slow them down for long! And Kaydon, next time just run! I'm in heavy armor, which is tons slower than you people in lighter stuff, remember!?"

For once you don't need to tell him twice. Kaydon holds tightly onto Arashi as he hauls ass. He doesn't even know where specifically he's going, just generally 'away from here'. Once he feels that they're far enough away, or when they drop the in combat status, maybe he'll let her down. Or perhaps if the others catch up and tell him it's okay.

It wasn't going to stop them. Of course not. As Giganpor gets his face grabbed, Proteus grimaces and shakes her head. "DON'T GET IN HIS WAY!" She yells, but too late, he's about to be reaved. Within that moment, Proteus steels herself to see Giganpor be annihilated...

But the other moves to grab Tri-Edge. They start... /communicating/. The strange language passing between them is something Proteus doesn't understand, another mystery being added to the pile. "It's going to be blasted impossible to replicate that." She murmurs. But they're saying... SOMETHING to one another. Arguing. But /what/? Maybe the other is telling Tri-Edge to stay on target?

There's no time to analyze. Proteus, instead, pulls out a healing potion and quickly lashes it to her arrow. Her hand clenches around the potion, and there is a quick ripple as Proteus breaches the Law in order to make an alteration to the purpose of the item.

A moment later, Proteus fires the arrow down... Not at the pair, but into the stone wall that Giganpor raised. The vial crashes down into the ground, exploding into billowing clouds that wash outwards, creating a thick fog in the area that tries to obscure the path between the PK(s) and the others. "Keep running...!" She hisses. If only she could open some kind of path to get them all out of here efficiently...

    "Eh? What- Hey!" That was unexpected. Arashi being picked up and carried off like a really large bag of potatoes. Or something. "Screw that PKer, he needs his damn face caved in!" she mumbles loudly, still only about half conscious as she's hauled off. "Where the heck are we going now..?"

With the stone wall erected, sight from Arashi is cut off. And with the smoke that follows immediately afterwards, the two figures are caught unawares and unable to get a scan on Arashi again. They'd reacted to the activation, it seems, as they are not following immediately after them. Or perhaps it's more than they are too busy to follow...

Proteus can still hear their bickering for a while. Luckily, someone had grabbed Arashi. If she'd stayed, this would not have been a problem for them. But as the group departs and gets some distance, it seems that after a while, it's almost like Tri Edge and his 'buddy' lost track of them. Because they just stop 'being there'.

Through those red scars remain in the surface of the hills.

Even Shiruba has to finally stop and catch her breath, and she's the one use to long nature treks. Though they're typically not at full speed escape. "Okay." Pause to take another deep breath. "Good thinking you two, getting an obstacle in their way." She stands and holds her arm out for Windburn to come land on, silently. Meaning she doesn't feel a threat anymore. "I think it worked, they're not following us."

Giganpor slows down a bit, then nods towards the direction of Alne, "Keep moving. We need to get to Alne at least. In the mean time... I'm putting out an alert to New World at least." He looks to Proteus, "I would advise you to do the same."

"Arashi, can you walk or should I just carry you the rest of the way?" Kaydon asks. He is prepared to carry her the whole way to Alne if need be, but if she can walk he's not gonna keep hauling her around if she chooses not to.

There is a clatter as the latches pop free, the wire is released, and the multiform weapon folds back into its puzzle box form. Proteus stashes it back into her Inventory as she finally comes to a halt, putting a hand up against a tree for support and gasping for breath. She looks up and over at the others, and nods. "Yeah. I'm going to need to pass this information along... But /what/ did we just see?" There is a little grunt. "Who was that other being, the one that isn't Tri-Edge?" She straightens, then, and turns to look to the group. "This might require some... rather dangerous research."

    There's.. not a LOT of response from Arashi. Some mutterings here and there, words to a song only she can hear, but over all, the question DOES reach her. "Eh? .. Um..." There's a little movement back there. Probably seeing if she can feel things, which she can. "I can probably walk.. slowly.."