#event thread : disaster's portent

[disgracedvessel]

Disaster’s Portent | Team 4 - Bronze Round

Arena starter for @childofvalla, @arcaeda, @amitieos, & @higaneion

The air smelled alive, the smoky scent of a bonfire but not quite. More sterile. More otherworldly. A flash rent the sky and a great crack followed soon after, startling Julius awake. “Awake,” of course, was not quite the right word once he realized that he was not in his own bed as a storm rolled in, but standing out in the middle of a wide stretch of grassy plains with ominous indigo clouds building overhead. In the distance, a flame flickered at the base of a tree - the result of the lightning strike that had brought his consciousness into lucidity.

He turned to his right with a devilish smile playing across his lips. The words “my dear,” half-formed, died promptly when he realized that the woman who stood nearby was not, in fact, the thunder goddess he had wooed and commanded, but some sapphire-haired knight carrying a lance (not homely by any means, but certainly not his Ishtar). He studied her for a moment while he thought she wasn’t looking, then noted the others that stood around them. Five in total, including himself. One he recognized from a past dream, vaguely; the other three he knew from the academy.

His brown knitted. Had he blacked out during an expedition? Lightning flashed again, thunder cracking behind it, and dragged Julius’ thoughts back to the situation at hand. They were standing in the middle of an open field as a devastating thunderstorm overcame them. Finding cover had to be priority - at least for him - and he took a step back, then another, as he watched the dry grass ignite where the strike had hit.

The lightning lingered longer this time, seeming to congeal into some beastly shape - first arms that ended in hooked claws, then a feline face began to take form. That’s where it stopped. The creature possessed no back half, but it zipped from one place in the air to another faster than the eye could follow. Suddenly aware that he held something in his hands, Julius tore his eyes from the scene long enough to glance down and assess the strange metal L-shaped object. Was it a weapon? It looked like none he had ever seen before, and he pressed down on the hook his index finger rested on. With loud crack like thunder itself, it fired a projectile into the earth in front of him. Julius stared at it.

In the next instant, he raised it toward the creature that had manifested before them and pulled the trigger a second time. The same thunderous bang, but this time the creature let out a pained cry as the projectile shot straight through it.

Julius hits with Imitation Dakka! Roll: 9 + 4 = 13 Thunder Beast takes -1.5HP, inflicted with -3 speed for one turn Current HP: 8.5/10

“Did you see that?” he called out, excitement, pride, and surprise lending a child-like cadence he often tried to hide to his voice. The beast would allow him no time to revel in his beginner’s luck though, and in a single flash, had crossed the entire plains to reappear directly in front of him. It lunged, his eyes widened, and suddenly heat raced through his right arm from shoulder to fingertips.

Thunder Beast hits with Crushing Fangs! Roll: 12 - 4 = 8 Julius takes -1.5HP Current HP: 10.5/12

He dragged his arm - now numb - out from the beast’s mouth and stumbled backwards.

Next: @childofvalla