Monday, December 15, 2014

Page 908

Hector found himself upside down and in a corner, bundled around Duvoss, Garovel, and Xuan. He scrambled back to his feet, a bit surprised to discover that he wasn’t missing any limbs or even armor. His shoes had blown right off his feet, and his ear drums had been ruptured, but he was too concerned with present circumstances to even notice. The only thing on his mind now was that he’d lost track of Asad through all the dust.

But Garovel hadn’t. ‘Run left. Melchor is still after us.

Hector bolted, following the scarcely visible wall. Then he stopped, but not because he wanted to. Something had a grip on his armor below the knee. He couldn’t quite see what it was, but there was no way he was going to wait around and find out. He annihilated the armor above the knee, slid his leg free, and kept running.

He came upon a sudden clearing in the dusty clouds and saw Asad. The Sandlord was already fighting Ismael yet again. Hector hadn’t been able to watch their repeated clashes very closely, but knowing all he did about Asad, it was informative enough just seeing that the Lord Blackburn had not yet fallen to him.

“Oh, hey, I’m still alive,” came Xuan’s voice, and Hector looked down to see that the man had regained consciousness. His already small body was still only half-regenerated, but at least he had lungs and elbows now.

Hector didn’t get a chance to respond. A tidal wave of mercury barreled through the fog after him. He launched himself out of its path with a slanted iron platform, but the mercury made a sharp turn and kept up the chase. Wide-eyed behind his helm, Hector launched himself again before he could even stop to regain his balance and went flipping sideways through the air.

A bed of sand softened Hector’s fall, and a massive barricade of crystalline spears shot up to defend him from another cage of frozen mercury that tried to box him in. They kept an escape route open for him while simultaneously launching daggers at Melchor, not that they did much good. Hector fled the glass shelter just as Darktide crashed through it, sending fist-sized shards in all directions.

Another iron platform shot Hector up past the second floor, all the way to the third, and his bare feet hit cold rock again. He checked on Xuan again and wanted to cry when he saw that barely any progress had been made after all that effort.

29 comments:

  1. The Sandlord was already [fight] Ismael yet[,] again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not shown: Hector's internal dialogue going SHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT ad infinitum.
    That's... actually a really good argument for being a midget servant. Less to regen. Of course, for a transfig type, that means you've less body mass to work with, but that can't make too much difference with pan-rozum.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "was already fight[ing] Ismael yet again"

    ReplyDelete
  4. "He launched himself out [of] its path"

    ReplyDelete
  5. "sending fist-sized shards in all directions."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Got it, thank you. The comma isn't needed, though.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Sandlord was already [fighting] Ismael yet again.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for the page.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I actually corrected that one before I saw this. SO HA. I'M THE BEST.

    Hmm? Oh, never mind all the other typos that were on this page. Those were. Um. Those were put there on purpose. To test everyone's grammar. AHAHA, AND YOU ALL PASSED. GOOD JOB, GUYS.

    ReplyDelete
  10. We passed? I mean... We passed! I never had any doubt!
    >_>
    <_<

    ReplyDelete
  11. You passed as a person who listened to their teachers.

    ReplyDelete
  12. By the way does Asad already wearing the ring given to him by his brother?

    ReplyDelete
  13. just wondering, if Xuan is conscious, then shouldn't he have full use of his ability now ?

    ReplyDelete
  14. *cough* Avoid "midget" if you possibly can in future. It has negative connotations and is a touch outdated. Little people can usually take "dwarf", though.

    Or "short arse": that one is just plain truth, oxygen-deprived. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  15. A person with dwarfism has disproportionately short limbs. The term
    midget was used to describe persons of small size but with normal
    proportions when compared to average people. There's a difference between the two. One is not just the "offensive" term for the other, and it is actually somewhat offensive to say that a midget has a negative connotation compared to a dwarf.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Yes-no. Historically, you'd be right. Currently, you're off-base: we have disproportionate and proportionate dwarfism, now. At 1.48m, I just miss out on proportionate, myself... while still hitting "too bloody short to use a standard kitchen unit effectively". :P

    Little person or dwarf, please. Thank you. Or, in my case: short. Very short. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Well, you should respect that just because you prefer those terms, does not mean that all people do. I think it's really most appropriate to just ask someone what term they prefer, as I know that Dwarf can be considered insulting to those who do not have Dwarfism.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Whatever. I correct people because I'm only not a dwarf by dint of 1cm... so calling me one is technically incorrect, although I personally accept the term from those who wouldn't know the difference between "extremes of the bell curve" and "achondroplasia".

    Those who dislike "dwarf" thanks to internalised bigotry do have "little person" and "short" to fall back on. But all of us generally find "midget", "titch", "Ewok", "Peck", "elf", "spelk" or any of those other words to be an insult.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Sorry, Euodiachloris, I wasn't aware of the negative connotations there - I'll be sure to remember that in the future. Thanks for correcting me.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Duvoss said he needs one hand to do anything useful. We'll find out why soon enough. Come to think of it, I wonder why he doesn't just go into Pan-Forma. We know that Pan-Rozum is a higher level state, so Pan-Forma should be easy for one of Xuan's age, and would make the regeneration go much faster.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Do you just get as exited as we do and miss stuff during the big fights? I certainly couldn't blame you if you did; your fight scenes are awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Using Pan-rozum was too much for Duvoss. He needs to rest.

    ReplyDelete
  23. So he still have a trump card. I can't wait to see what it can do.

    ReplyDelete
  24. That's OK. You didn't know, and that's no crime. :) Now you do. Many people do try using "dwarf" on me in an ignorant attempt to insult. I actually often wish I was short enough to qualify: I'd maybe be able to get discounts for things like furniture, tools and appliances that'd be more scaled to me. As it is, I can only dream of living with chairs that'd fit to me or power tools that won't leap out my hands if I use anything but a death grip. -_- Dangling legs or edge-sitting is tiring... not to mention runaway drills. -_-

    ReplyDelete
  25. Last line is just hilarious.

    You know, if there's a bright side to all this, it's that Hector won't be afraid of anyone that's around Harper's level anymore. Anyone of Darktide/Seadevil's level or higher, though, would still make him (and me) shit bricks lol

    ReplyDelete
  26. I'm surprised Hector isn't already secretly, silently crying uder his helm...
    ...You read this, and then you think of how he is when he is with girls (especially Lynn)...

    ReplyDelete