Serenity continued to look sternly at Zane, not moved by his speech. She knew why she displayed her powers, and even showed mercy by not directing the full force of her wind at him. At least she told herself so, biting her lip at the thought.
Her head shot behind her when Zane called out the warning and she saw the metal hand. Immediately one of the rock arms shot up to deflect the metal arm.
It wasn't fast enough however, the rock arm shot up to late and only changed the direction of the rusted claw. While it wasn't fatal the metal device managed to tear through her suit and slash her back. Bright red streams could be seen in the dim light.
Screaming, she fell to the ground and gasped before regaining her focus, realizing the battle was not over. Slashing her hand in the general direction of where the arm came from, a blade of wind was sent flying towards the space.
Last Edit: Aug 8, 2011 19:41:21 GMT -5 by Serenity
The narrator desperately scrambles for a tetanus joke as Zane makes short work of a few rusty constructs in front of him. Several more rise up from the shadows, heading for him, sawblades whirring, cutting him off.
The constuct that towered over Serenity was bigger than the others, but also less precise. Its giant claw was slow, and Serenity was mostly able to block it with earth magic. The wind buffeted its metal body and it swayed on the spot, releasing a giant sawblade from its chest in desperation, sending it flying towards the mage.
Of all the graveyards in all the towns in all the world, she had to walk into mine.
Zane gathers the flying blades together, and then flings a portion of the blood out as a long line, making a flying death-line that sliced some of the robots in half horizontally. He then takes his scalpel and dips it into the rest, and then forms a razor thin sword. He dashes forward and lays about with it, slicing the rusty machines into tiny pieces.
Serenity got up on her knees and looked up at the giant metal monster. The rock arms sprang to life and flew towards the machine, catching the spinning saw blade. The initial catch was not so successful as the blade crumbled one of the arms, causing bits of rocks to fall from the sky.
She put much more focus on the one left and begged it to clench the spinning blade tight. It to nearly fell apart before it managed to stop the saw blade.
"Mother earth..protects me," she muttered to herself as she slowly got up. Her legs could barely hold her up as a little tornado began to form around her.
Slowly its size increased and began to pull various clutter towards Serenity. The little bits of dust formed an image within the wind tornado, what appeared to be a phantom of sorts.
"And Death...fights for me!" The miniature tornado shot forth in the direction of her scream, almost carrying her cry with it. The wind knocked over the giant metal monster creating a loud bang.
Not able to stand much further and exhausting her focus, she collapsed to the ground.
The constructs clattered to the ground, unmoving. No more rose.
The crystal blared to life.
All of these robots are made of asbestos. Keeps out the rats. Let us know if you feel a cough, shortness of breath, or your heart stopping. Because that's not the test, that's asbestos.
A door on the far wall opened.
Last Edit: Aug 8, 2011 21:08:43 GMT -5 by Skulldon
Of all the graveyards in all the towns in all the world, she had to walk into mine.
Sid slides the sword back into his wound, and then used healing magic to seal his arm up. He then looks around, and sees Serenity on the ground, and runs over to her. He leans down and puts his arm under he shoulders and raises her head up some.
"Serenity! Are you okay? Speak to me!"
He looks her over, making sure to not stare to long at any 'specific' parts, looking for visible wounds
Her blood loss was great, surprisingly the evil blood mage doctor didn't seem to notice or check her back. Her front must of been to interesting.
Serenity opened her eyes a bit after been picked up, her vision vaguely noticing Zane. When she realized he had her in his arms, she frantically got up only to fall again after exerting herself. The pervy doctor should be able to see her bloody back now.
Zane sees that her back is covered in blood. He mutters to himself as he rolls her onto her back, making sure he puts her down softly
"You may hate my magic, but without it..."
He then pulls the slash in her suit pen more, giving him a better view of her back and the wound in it. He first used his sleeve to wipe away the blood, and then inspects the wound. He focuses and draws as much blood of hers from around as he could, and then takes out his scalpel and slices another cut into his arm. He focuses and draws out a good quantity of his blood, mixing it with the blood or hers he had managed to gather and then uses his magic to force the blood back into the wound.
His eyes beginning to blur from the strain, he switches to healing magic, and seals up the slash in her back. He then sits her up, leaning her against the table. He taps the very last dredges of his healing magic and touches his glowing fingers to her temple, trying to restore consciousness, and takes a step back, stumbling slightly.
"There, that's all I can do for you... hopefully it will be enough..."
He then sits down heavily, and takes out his needle and thread, sowing up his own wound.
Serenity could feel a warmth come over her, feeling was returning to her body once more. Her eyes were closed when she regained consciousness, but she could see a light.
Finally opening her eyes, she saw the doctor stitching himself up on the ground. She realized she was sitting as well, on her back, which should be in pain right now.
For a moment the mage thought she just hadn't had full feeling returned yet, but no, her back felt just fine.
She finally made some noise and spoke up, "W..where are the monsters?"
Zane looked up, relief in his eyes, as he finished stitching, and bit the thread, then tied off the stitches
"Well, there's a pile of them dead over there, another pile over there, and the big one you killed is right there"
He points towards the two piles of constructs he shredded, and then finally motions over his shoulder to the big guy laying in a pile of scrap made from himself
"Are you feeling alright? Your back took a nasty hit. You lost a lot of blood."
Upon the mention of the word blood, her memory sparked her to action and she raised her hand, a little whirlwind formed around it.
Before striking though she considered her current condition and how she got better. Putting the pieces together, she had none other than Zane to thank for her good health right now. The wind dispersed harmlessly and she let her arm drop to the ground.
She began to catch her breath slowly and looked around the room. A new doorway had opened, after all the monsters fell she thought. If this Caverson was still around she would have words with him.
At any rate, a blood mage wouldn't have gone through such lengths to save another, not an evil one like she was taught. If Zane were still to be suspected he'd have to lying unconscious from his own blood loss in order for her to believe him. She can't possibly believe so after all this.
And yet doubts were still present, and it would take a little while more for them to fully disperse. She swallowed,
Serenity felt a tad weak as well, but she remembered the impact she suffered. The amount of blood she must of lost, there's no way she would be awake right now without some sort of sacrifice from Zane.
The mage never really believed in karma, but if it did exist it was milking all over Serenity right now.
For a little while she was quiet, contemplating their situation and what more lay in wait up ahead. There could be more of these machines in this horrid lab, or even something worse.
Her focus should of been more precise, then maybe she and Zane wouldn't be sitting here like this.
Thinking back to what he had said though, about his blood magic, made her realize something.
"Zane...if you don't mind me asking. Your magic, you said you cleanse bad blood. Does...does that mean you could remove curses from blood as well?"
"No need to be sorry, either. I'm not just going to sit there and watch someone bleed out because I'm too greedy to sacrifice my own blood."
When she mentioned cursed blood, Zane's eyebrow raised
"Blood curses are pretty powerful things... Usually, I just use my blood magic as a more efficient and precise way of bleeding out the bad blood, but I can cleanse it of infections as well. It just takes longer... As for curses, I don't know. Never tried."
Zane then rubbed his arm where he had stitched it
"However, blood curses are a bit different. Normal curses are the realm of priests and clerics. But with a blood curse, if you are a powerful enough blood mage and can combine some healing magic as well, it can be done. But depending on the strength of the curse, it can become really hard, really fast. I'd say that, if I were at full power, I could likely cleanse a weak or medium blood curse with just normal methods."
Zane then sighs and looks Serenity in the eyes
"But, these are depressing topics. Why do you ask?"
And now irony would take a swing at Serenity, she was smiling in the dark room, a bitter smile.
Many thoughts filled her mind at once. Her studies at the university, the lectures around blood magic, the paranoia surrounding it, Zane, that damned snowy day.
Yet, how could she have known? No one can predict their future, but if the knowledge were readily available, then maybe there could of been time.
She shook her head, realizing that thinking about these things would change nothing. Her eyes were to the ground, her hair covering her face, she was trying hard not to show that she was crying a little.
"Its nothing, Zane." she said very weakly, a crack could almost be heard in her voice.