Quest A Monumental Task

[Nivel]

Nivel was far to curious about the Tree to wonder what was taking the grandmaster so long. She’d never seen the man so for all she knew he could very well be a tree. As Nivel looked over the unnaturally crafted bark and leaves of the tree it’s already strong aura began to awaken. The Mighty trees aura was so overwhelmingly potent that Nivel was certain Ball and Arch could feel its presence too. It alarmed Nivel at first because it felt a bit like when she faced the Qamur in the woods in winter. Although this aura was far more calming then the turbulent one she encountered on that fateful day. She kept her guard up but slowly relaxed a bit as the aura radiated a feeling of tranquility with growing intensity.

The mysterious tree let out ghostly roots that dug into her nexus and ensured her in it’s embrace. It was alarming at first but it’s power of persuasion only increased and she found her inhibitions and fears being eaten away. She did how ever start to picture the strange imagery of a spider sinking it’s teeth into her clay flesh but it confused her more than alarmed her. The imagery faded soon enough and was gone from her thoughts as abruptly as it appeared. It was followed by tree communicating the urgent task the tree pycons would have to do through sensations and imagery. As Nivel listened and sympathized for what she now recognized as the legendary Windoak, the clay blooms on her head started to open up and turn into leaves that mimicked hair.

Nivel was ready and willing to do everything to help the tree but she felt a slight feeling of disappointment. She soon found that the source of this conflicting emotion was from Arch and not herself. She could even feel Ball inside her nexus as well and It was clear now that the tree had linked there thoughts. Imagery of deadly vegetation with spikes, hissing mouths and drooling pustules flooded her mind as she thought of what the creatures the tree was thinking of. The squirrel thought of them as silly but Nivel knew that they must be terrifying if they were to give a godly tree like the one in front of them any trouble. Despite being fairly fearless in many areas, Nivel was a touch wary or the outcome of this endeavour. If they were to fail it wouldn’t just be there life on the line but the entirety of Syliras that would crumble if this sacred tree was left to rot.

Just before the Windoak severed the connection it shared with them the imagery of a shinny rock that would give them light when they found it. Intense sensory pain followed as the roots pulled themselves out of her thoughts. It felt far worse than the strain her magic had ever put on her nexus but it luckily faded far quicker. Her Nexus was now her own and she would have to now delve deep into unknown terrain with her comrades.
“I can see in the dark with the help of my magic, so I should at least go second” Nivel interjected. She was scared but did her best to over compensate by sounding authoritative.

When Ball entered the dark enterence, Nivel quickly followed after. She activated her autistics to give her a better understanding of the pitch black hole they would be traversing. She made sure to notify the others of any obstacles that might be in the way.

Credit for Boxcode goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Ball]

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

Ball almost expected to see the Grandmaster step from somewhere, which was apparently what the other’s thought as well. Ball seen the man from a distance a few years back during the Shield Games and he called the whole series of games a farce of their order. Yet something felt odd to the smallest of the three, there was an odd sort of stillness and near muggy feeling that couldn’t be explained. Summer didn’t tend to bring mugginess in the air; instead it was usually quite dry. Ball turned slowly, looking over his shoulder hoping to catch a glimpse of someone. Instead he came up empty until he turned back around to the tree… By then the palpable aura filled Ball with fear reminding him remotely of the fight against the Lagool, it froze the violent three inch clay man in his place, a look of pure fear etched across his face. It wasn’t until the seed of peace and duty was planted deep into his nexus that Ball was able to relax and let the fears fall away. They were here before this mighty oak not as squires, not as pycons, as sworn protectors… As loyal followers. Yet the urgency of their reason for it returned in the rustling creaking of branches amongst a windless day… The branches they do not move. Nor does a mouth appear. Yet he speaks.It was hard to follow along but the urgency and odd sensations provided Ball with what he hoped was enough of an understanding of the situation.

Apparently the tree felt that the three of them had grown in strength Of what sort? and that he was not doing well, something was living within it and eating away at it… Like a parasite or a disease. Yet when it threw the image of two objects Ball was confused, there was three sitting before the great tree, Maybe it is just confused or using our sizes as approximates? I mean it does say our size gives us an advantage… For what? no sooner had that thought rumbled through his nexus did the tree go on, the trio was to go beneath it’s roots and defeat whatever was making it ill. There was a rumbling sound of something moving, yet Ball ignored it he was fully succumbed to the will of the tree and its words. The Windoak spoke of being careful for he knew nothing of what was below, then a small stone that apparently light will come to them in… And that was when the tree’s grip on them released.

It was then that Ball stood and looked at the others. A pause as he first looked at the Squirrel and then to Nivel before he turned his attention to the opening in the courtyard ground. It was almost as if the rock was on some sort of hinge like a door in the halls below… Yet, something was not normal, Ball knew little about trees and what they looked like healthy or unhealthy, but there was broken bits of roots and others struggling to grow like fleshy little bits of wood. The first words to come from the Squirrel though were to ask if Ball was going to go first. Though the words were aimed at Ball he looked at the other two and almost rebuked it when he realized the circumstances. That hole was just large enough to allow for the Squirrel to make it through it easily enough, but there was no telling how easy he was going to be able to maneuver around if things came to blows… And Ball was almost certain it would. It would do no good to the trio if they were stuck in a hole and the big guy got beat down and they were surrounded by who the petch knew what sort of enemy. For Sylir… He recalled Ser Pycon and Liege Lord calling out during the fight on the floating wooden death trap. He just nodded and stepped towards the hole.

“I don’t care what the order is after this. All I know is we best be smart about our decisions. This isn't just us we are doing this for…” Ball left the rest of that sentence unspoken.

Staring into the depths unable to see far within Ball gulped and looked back at the others of the clay brethren that were here with him. It is now or never Ball. Placing his hand on the flat face of stone his hands trembled as he step himself into the dark below. He had no idea what to expect once he found himself surrounded by dirt and tree roots.

Credit :

Created goes to Raus for aiding in the photo manipulation, Myself for color and transparency manipulation as well as box code. Character is accredited below

[Nightmare]

Beneath the Windoak

Scents of sap, scents of earth, scents of the long buried wafted up from the darkness as the pycons hesitated. With Nivel in the lead, the three descended into the unknown. As the last pycon entered, the stone settled back over them, sealing their retreating and plunging them into utter dark. Around the pycon, covering the pycon sized tunnel, were the roots of the Windoak, and as the clay eyes of the pycon adjusted, six stones attached to the nearby roots began to glow.

Hopefully these were what the Windoak was referring to. Each stone was proportionally large to Ball, the size of one of his clay fists, so quite small. The light shed was an unearthly glow, a dim acid green that made the eyes hurt looking straight at it. But it was enough, collectively to light up portions of the tunnel.

The tunnel led down.

As the trio moved down the length of the tunnel, there was a slight change of the texture of the walls. Where the walls were thickly matted with roots upon roots, soon the gnarled wood gave way to dirt tunnels only lightly interspersed with questing roots. Pebbles and rocks studded the walls, some the size of boulders, if the pycons were human sized, that were held fast by rocks. Even the tunnel itself began to vary in size and shape, growing tall and thin at some points or jagged and leaning in others. But on and on it went down.

There was only occasional evidence of other tunnels. Roots might make a branching unusable or perhaps a cave in of soil and stone. In the end there was only a single tunnel to use and the dim light of the stone would only reveal the next few feet.

At last they came to a true branch. Before the trio of pycons there were three paths, each leading further down. To the far right air moved. Perhaps a good sign? It smelled of the sea and was cool, far cooler then the warm spring air demanded. Down that path one could only hear the sounds of the whistling wind.

The middle path seemed to be stagnant. The walls of that path were sodden, beading moisture and some... other substance. It smelled strangely of freshly cropped hay, though it carried an undertone of decay. Peculiar. Even the light seemed reluctant to enter down this path, instead curving around so the shadows made a slight semicircle facing oddly towards them rather then away.

The far left path was warm. The air made one think of warm sands, a welcoming hearth fire and thick socks. Though, it was odd for pycons to think of socks. Perhaps the thoughts were not their own? In either case, just around the bend of that tunnel, a warm, natural glow suffused the soil and stone walls.

Unfortunately, the Windoak was silent on the correct path. The pycons would have to try their luck and hope that their path was the correct path to the evil that besieged their brotherhood's symbol. Hopefully they were up to the task should they find their foe, or even if there was a foe at all and not something more mundane and fixable.

.

[Nivel]

The exit closed behind the trio and left them in complete darkness. The other pycons were unable to see but thankfully Nivel could with the help of Autistics. Every rock and tree root that blocked their path was blanketed in a halo of light and colour that made the dark abyss far more appealing than it actually was. The mage unintentionally snagged the lead from Ball as she spotted some stones that begin to glow with an unnatural radiance. She didn’t sense anything harmful about them so she approached.
“Hey.” Nivel called out as she got closer “Look!” She gestured enthusiastically to gain the others squires attention.
“I don’t sense any thing tainted about their aura, I think this is a gift from the Windoak to help you two see.” She waited as Arch and Ball grabbed some stones and continued down the pathway. She didn’t grab a stone, knowing full well it would only distract her from noticing any dangers that lied ahead.

As she traveled deeper, she became more mindful of what she heard and the noise she was making. She walked fast but carefully down the organic path, and tried her best to be as quiet as possible. Though her ears moved about wildly like the antenna of a paranoid insect, as she tired to listen for any thing that sounded out of place.

She occasionally stopped to inspect what could have been possible passage ways, but after finding no way past the crumbled debris she would quickly move down the single pathway. That was until the group came to three very district paths that all seemed suspicious. The path to the right seemed unnaturally windy especially for an underground tunnel, it didn’t seem unpleasant but Nivel was still weary of it. The one to the left seemed to feel warm and comforting, it made her think of socks but not the one that she slept in but ones she would wear on her feet. The fact that she was thinking such unnatural things was reason enough to assume it was a trap. The final route that sat in the middle was probably the most ominous and the aura it gave off seemed tainted.

Nivel had encountered a scenario like this only days prior in the Sanea Labyrinth. At the time she chose the most unpleasant path because it seemed like a tactic the living labyrinth would use to dissuade exploration. Had her adventuring party actually continued down the path they may have found the treasure the labyrinth and been hiding. Instead they retreated down the path filled with flowers which turned out to be the exit. With the challenge laid before her this time she couldn’t just leave, she knew had no choice but to go down the most unpleasant option.

“I sense trickery a foot” Nivel whispered as she pointed to the one on the left “that path is clearly a trap.”

“Hrrm, I rule out that one too” Nivel pointed to the right tunnel “it’s suspicious but I don’t sense evil there.”

“I say we go down the centre, It seems fraught with corruption” She stated reluctantly.

After some quick discussion amongst them, they all agreed that the middle path was the one they would enter and they bravely ventured into the pitch darkness as one solid unit. Nivel hoped they had made the right decision and weren’t crawling into the gaping mouth of some creature spawned of nightmare.


She readied her fists and tried to clear her mind with some quick breathing exercises in case she needed to evoke her flux magic.

Credit for Boxcode goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Ball]

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

Ball released a brief shriek as the world plunged itself into darkness, but it didn't last as his vision returned to clarity shortly afterward. Their world was engulfed in an eerie green wash that only increased the pycon warrior's fear that this might not be as easy as they were expecting. Nivel had taken the advantage of his brief blindness and stepped forward, she apparently was not affected by the shifting change of light. The green was coming from the stones embedded above and Ball had to cover his eye to keep from going blind as his nexus started to ache shortly after he looked at them. With his other hand he reached up, wrapping his fingers around them and pulled. The stone came loose with a groaning tear from the root it was suspended on. Holding it down to his side so it shone outward the shortest of the trio followed Nivel forward.

With each pause Ball tensed his free hand, the clay bunching together with fear as much as for sheer power behind the little fist that Ball felt he was going to need. Yet with each stop it was evident that were once tunnels were caved in or the ground shifted through the years and clots of dirt dropped and revealed odd holes in the walls. Yet it was when they stopped did he notice something off, at first it was an odd mixture of decay, ocean, and something else… He couldn't determine what it was but it smelled oddly like the fireplace in the dorms when lit.

The ocean made him cringe from it, first it stirred up feelings of the Lagool and the ship that was crushed. The loss of a patron and Ball growled before he nexus shunned it remembering they were underneath a tree, that would be an exit to the sea that resided nearby. The warm tunnel arch the other direction, the warmth and smell felt like another exit… To the dorms it seems. The tunnel before them screamed as the obvious choice. His nexus recalling that the tree was decaying, dying from a parasite within. “The left one reminds me of Hai on the sea. Monsters known to crush ships. We are not that far from the sea, I know we can see the tree from the harbor easily enough. That probably leads that way. The right smells of the dorms, after a long day of training with the larger pycons. They always stink and leave their body covers.”

It was this middle branching that smelled of death, it reminded Ball of the Kriital's cave and his monocular eye narrowed in disgust. “The middle one. It smells of death.” His words spat out, dripping with the only emotion that rolled through Ball most times, anger. He lifted the stone in his hand and glanced at it. “Nivel. Duck.” And without pause he pulled it back and threw it hard into the tunnel before them. Watching it's glow bounce off dripping wetness and sodden dirt in a way that was unnerving.

With both hands free Ball clenched them tightly into fists. Watching as the stone bounced and rolled before coming to a stop. “Now we go. The light wants to steer away from it, let's bring the light to it.”

Credit :

Created goes to Raus for aiding in the photo manipulation, Myself for color and transparency manipulation as well as box code. Character is accredited below

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The last to step into the darkness, Arch was also the first to feel the gust of cold air on his back as the stones grated noisily back over the entrance, leaving not even the tiniest slivers of light between the cracks. Both hands reached out and dug his fingers deep into the earthly walls. No. No no. This wasn't the Aperture. This wasn't Nyka. He'd gone through worse, he could handle this. No fear. No doubt. No mercy. Grounded as he was, he'd almost completely forgotten about the Windoak's.. well, they weren't exactly words. "Light." The strange little stones it had shown. Stones never brought light, but these ones were definitely not ordinary. Their glow was entirely unnatural and reflexively made the Pycon squint in the faint yet almost painful light.

As his eyes slowly adjusted to the glare, he noticed both hands had sunk deep into either side of the root-matted wall. Perhaps he'd been a little more forceful than necessary but hey, it'd never said anything about closing itself back up like that! In return, he said nothing as he struggled to ease both hands back out of the tiny holes they'd made for each finger, possibly snagging a few of the tiny pale roots along the way. "Alright, guess we stick close and move slowly..." The only thing they had to prevent the ground from simply collapsing underneath their feet unexpectedly and swallowing them all whole was a little faith in the talking tree - and to be completely honest, until he got a decent explanation of just what that thing was and why it was asking for their help, he didn't really want to go near the thing at all.

But, it was asking for help. Taking a look deeper down the tunnel, he couldn't see any more stones other than the six embedded in the wall. Guess we're going to be taking a few for the ride, then. He took a leaf from Ball's book and reached up, grabbing one of the little fist-sized orbs. Hmph! A few harsh tugs broke up the tiny roots surrounding the stone, sending trickles of loose dirt down the walls. "Right behind you guys." Holding it in front of his face hurt his eyes far too much. Arch had a better idea and just set the little stone down on top of his own head, where a little cusp formed from the clay to hold it in place. Ta-dah! Home-made torch helmet to follow as he followed the other two down and onwards, deeper into the dank, stale underground.

As the path became more rugged, requiring the Pycon to physically lengthen his body to make it squeeze through the narrower portions, one question kept surfacing in his mind. Why even have a tunnel like this in the first place? What did a tree have to gain by making a tunnel running this long and this big all the way down to wherever it is that they were going.. or, more frighteningly, what could have formed a path like this for itself without the talking tree defending itself? True, it was a tree, but by no means ordinary if it could communicate! If he ever got the opportunity to ask questions, he'd make a mental note to address those ones first.

The other two up ahead were drawing to a stop; he couldn't see what was ahead from all the way at the back, though! "What's going on?" He shuffled a little closer, peeking over Nivel and Ball's head to the sudden branches. Weird. All the other ones before seemed to be blocked up. Why are these the only options to us? Perhaps he was just asking too many questions - apparently it was a serious problem of his. There were just so many things that seemed.. off.

Splitting up seemed like a poor choice. They'd have to pick one and the other two made good observations; if they were looking for whatever was eating away at the tree, there was only one path to take. "The one on the right seems.. out of place.. so deep underground." For that matter, all three of them did, but the bizarre but unmistakeable smell of those things that his fellow squires put on their feet was too strange to ignore. There wouldn't actually be socks down here. It made him curious, admittedly. But the middle path seemed the obvious option. "Mm'h. Middle it is. Wait--shyke!" Ball's words had suddenly brought his mind back to those stones. "Drat, we should have taken all of them." The more light the better. But, oh well. He followed the other two and swiftly ducked down through the pungent middle tunnel, trying to lift the little stone high above all three of their heads to illuminate as much of the tunnel as he could manage. "Don't stop, guys. As long as we keep on moving, we should be fine." As they walked, he nudged insistently to keep them marching.

[Efforvescent]

They went down the middle path, the smell of dank, mold and must filled their nostrils. This was mingled with decaying hay, rotten food and the smell of vermin. The garnished a slick texture the deeper the trio went. They must have walked down the corridor a bell or two. It was hard to say as time did not tell on itself down in the dredges of these insufferable walls. Those walls would get colder and the slick texture took on more of a wet sheen. In the darkness the counterpoint of two or three differing drips would come to their hearing. The smell worsened.

The feet would find the decaying and rotten hay. It was mingled with yellowish sticky soil and other material that did not look pleasant. The trio of clay persons came out upon what appeared to be a constructed tunnel. The stone pieces constructing this tunnel curved into each other on the round in masterful conjoined workmanship. There was a deep reservoir in the center that held a slow moving liquid. By the smell, it would not be difficult to ascertain that this was the sewer.

He huddled in a corner. He waited. He was paid to wait. They said he would be paid well, in silver mizas. This poor sod hadn’t seen this kind of coin in a while. He was nothing more than a shell of desperation and despair. He looked around for the hundredth time for something. He said he would be picked up by someone. He waited with his knees pulled up to his chest.

A rat would scurry by, then two more behind that one, squeaking its defiance to the trio before disappearing in the dark. There was cracks and openings as the aged stone was intertwined with roots in some places and in others was mold and lichen growing up the walls. Onward they would move. The sound of dropping pebbles joined the sounds and counter points of dripping water. There was one, then two pebbles or rocks. There was nothing for a tick or two till the rumble of stone would fall down from the side mixed with soil. It continued to collapse with the mixture of soil and stone from the side and up. It was so much that once it settled; it blocked the pathway fairly well. It would come between Ball and the other two Pycon. Ball would find himself alone.

There was the urge to continue that would sift through and around Ball. The sense of urgency was from a palpable outside source as if wanting him to turn his head from the rock slide turned into a blockage. The piles of rotten food, wood, straw would become a bit more pronounced as the piles got larger as if the waste of humanity left its mark in where it lived. Ball may smell or see the glint of flesh from amongst garbage of humanity.

[Ball]

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

The smell was unnerving but Ball trekked forward, he had decided to slide in front of Nivel and Archie, even though the mage had the better sight apparently. Ball had the fists, meaning he was their best bet at surviving an attack from the front. Luckily for them all though there was no fight to be head currently. Yet there was something else that made Ball want to freak and run. The walls seemed to tremble, precursor to something yet the Pycon didn't know what. It was several bells of trekking through the sludge and smell that Ball soon found himself looking backwards to see the dots of glowing stones behind him. It was then he realized they were lagging behind for some time. Fright? Nerves? Just slow.

Ball knew not the answer, and yet the tree seemed to know for him. Something rumbled within the ground and the dirt, sod, roots, and decaying debris created a wall, an improbable way to return from which he came. They were stuck on the other side. He turned again, this time looking forward towards his destiny. Going solo, like a knight should. Ball recalled the Warden Knight stating prior to the trio heading underneath the tree.

The walls were shrouded by darkness, yet he could see some detail of them becoming more solid and less dirt... Like rocks and mortar. Rats squeaked past him and the pyken artist just ignored them. They were not the threat, that much Ball could tell. It wasn't much longer until Ball could see a lump of what appeared to be rotting hay in a corner. Even in the dimness of his surroundings Ball could see it was moving, or maybe that was his eye and nexus playing tricks on him and before him was just a darkness encased lump of hay.

The smell seemed to be coming from this area, and Ball did his best to leave the urge to vomit clay to his clay folk beyond the rock wall behind him. He was going to be a knight, and knights didn't lose their breakfasts due to the horrid smell Ball was suffering from. There was a rustling and Ball looked closer at it, flecks of dulled colors that didn't match the muted rotting materials nor wall peeked out at him. He balled his hands tightly together, forming fists as he stepped forward.

“Show yourself in the name of the Order.” Ball called out as loud as he could.

Credit :

Created goes to Raus for aiding in the photo manipulation, Myself for color and transparency manipulation as well as box code. Character is accredited below

[Prophet]

Beneath the Windoak

The tiny figure of clay was met with silence. The odd symphony of subterranean noises continued but the small squire might be more interested in the architecture of roots. The mighty Windoak’s support system was certainly an intentional design. The way the cavern was formed paid homage to symmetry and function with repeated patterns of angles and shapes formed by roots that crossed over one another. Several chimes would go by so the Pycon could investigate the large cavern in which he stood including several piles of filth and trash. The rotten smell seemed to originate from a massive pile of hay and debris within the center of the area. A man, as dirty and foul as the aroma, peeked his head up over the mess to locate the source of the voice. He was human and middle-aged; perhaps older but the soot and soil on his face obscured many of the age lines. His hair was unkempt and varied in length, his form was still mostly hidden so there wasn’t much to infer about his size but the eyes of the man were unforgettable.

Wild and vivid, the stare that locked onto the clay squire almost seemed to glow with madness. Grey skin sagged beneath his eyes which created a sunken effect. For a tick or three, the man didn’t seem to know what to do with his visitor. Then, as if struck by a lightning bolt of inspiration, he made a swift move to the closest tree root. He grabbed a hold of it and giggled as he drew in djed from the Windoak. When he let go, the root seemed to have a handprint burned into the place where the man had grabbed it. He now turned to face the tiny squire, fueled by his recent acquisition, and gave a garbled giggle. The body was frail and thin like a half-starved teenager. “The order can lick my boots!” He erupted in laughter that echoed around them. The man trembled slightly but one could not say if it was from madness, illness or power.

Suddenly, whatever the man had drawn from the root emboldened him; changed him. His hands began to transform from fingers and palms to mallets of solid bone. On his feet and legs, thick shells of bone wrapped around his filthy breeches and scuffed boots up to his knees. Another gargled laugh vomited from the man’s throat. His voice had gone up in pitch as if the excitement of tormenting the small creation was almost an overwhelming prospect. “Come forward, fool! I’ll introduce you to your end!"

[Ball]

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

Ball's singular eye took in the intricate wood's structure, it was all angles and symmetrical. Ball felt he knew the shape of this from somewhere familiar... A cage... He grimaced, Ball hated being trapped more than he hated being carried upon ship or through the air. The pycon took pause his fear dissipating as something about the whole situation took his attention from the structural formation of the cavity and mass of rot in the center of the cavern, it seemed almost alive. The tree was struggling a weak pulse in the palpable atmosphere of this cavity was not ignored. The source was here... For the order.

The man's shift to the tree limb was not missed. Ball cocked his head to the side to acknowledge he saw it and was poised to take on any assault as it came. What he wasn't suspecting was the man's shift in physical appearance. At first he was a withered skeleton of skin and bones. A sack of rotting flesh, muscle and bone. Dirty to the core... But he had tore his hand off the limb of the great oak's being and something changed... He appeared stronger, filled out. The hand print was visible to Ball on the limb. There was magic involved. Of what kind or effects it might have Ball had no idea.

Ball narrowed his eye, growled as the man spoke, first it was a tittering giggle that garbled his insult to the pycon's 'family'...The lighting was dim but then he realized what he was seeing, the man wasn't just filling out his body was shifting. Hands became mallets, limbs became encased like a bug. Ball shifted his attention fully to the man, his mind keeping in mind the architecture. What did the tree say about the stones... Ball regrets having disposed of his so suddenly.

“You don't scare me.” Ball growled, his anger was bubbling internally as he stared at the man, it was this man that was killing the tree. Tainting all that was the Order – his family. Fists clenched tighter as growled, “You have tainted my family. Destroying everything that they hold dear and close. This is no longer about my pride... My honor. This is no longer a test of my values and beliefs. This is about my family.”

Ball shifted the clay in his back, forming hands around the pole that was nestled there during his trek down underneath the tree, the same happened to the left of his waist, where his rapier hung. Fingers clasped the rapier's hilt. Neither additional limbs sprouted to take hold of the weapons in a combative formation, but they were poised for the ready. Ball was not highly trained in them, but he hoped he could use what little skill he had in them with his pyken to solve that issue.

“I cannot let you go any further.” Ball pushed the extra limbs out, his pole came out of his back and arched over his head, clasped by two hands. As the flexible wood capped in metal hit the ground the pycon's weight caused the pole to bend. Tension was building and Ball could feel it just as much as he could feel it in the air... There was going to be a fight, and only one of them was going to survive. As the tension in his pole became almost unbearable Ball shifted his body so he was aiming at one of the eye's of the man, his body stiffened as he stared directly into the man's eyes. This man is crazy. Rapier slide from it's leather the arm pulling it free shifted upward so it was the point of Ball's expedition into the air.

Ball pushed his feet off the ground, pushing with all his might, the pole's tension released and flung the pycon up into the sky, pulling the pole against his body Ball wrapped his whole being around the pole, trying to shrink himself into as slender of an object that he could as he kept his trajectory true. The rapier's hilt and protective cup were also wrapped in clay, his nexus tucked neatly into the protective cup of the sword. There was plenty of give and wiggle room so Ball could pull his nexus out if there was dangerous to be had. The goal would be to pierce the man's eye. To get so close to the man that he could no longer do harm to Ball without doing harm unto himself.

Credit :

Created goes to Raus for aiding in the photo manipulation, Myself for color and transparency manipulation as well as box code. Character is accredited below