RuneScape Forum Archive | The Nature of Biology

Eno Remnant

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Welcome one, welcome all, to my latest short story!

This is one I came up with while I was sitting in Biology class, learning about the seven signs of life.

It's just a bit of rambling with no real storyline, but I hope you enjoy it.

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The Nature of Biology

“Jack, you can’t kill something that’s not alive in the first place.” Jack smiled, and made a vague gesture with his hands.
“How much you want to bet, Dan?” The other man looked ahead at his three other companions vacantly, seeing only vague outlines in the sparsely lit passage, his brow furrowed as he tried to invent a ridiculous sum of money.
“Two tonnes of gold ingot.” Jack whistled low, but then nodded sagely, and began to gently ease his sword from its scabbard.
“Agreed.” He peered over his should as though confirming something to himself, and then cupped a hand to his mouth, shouting towards the figures walking ahead of them.
“Hey, chief! We’ve got company!” A stern looking man at the front turned to look at him, but was instead drawn to something further down the path. Dan and the others turned to follow his gaze, and were suddenly aware of a large number of stone statues—Roman legionnaires, if Dan did*’t miss his guess—advancing on them through the narrow tunnel.
“Simon and Jack, you run interference with me! Dan, Sophia, get working on a way to drop these things! The corridor’s narrow, so if you have to just drop a bit of the roof in their way!” Simon and Jack drew their swords and flung themselves at the nearest automaton, striking at it in a bewildering array of blows that would have swiftly felled a mortal enemy. As it was, their attacks merely chipped away a few slivers of stone. They cursed foully and retreated, swinging bucklers from their backs onto their arms, grunting under the impact of heavy stone blades.

15-May-2013 06:56:08

Eno Remnant

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“Chief, some help’d be nice!” Jack called; rolling his eyes at his leader’s grunted response, and the sudden appearance of a heavy hammer head between him and Simon. It slammed into the lead golem, cracking its surface and staggering it into its brethren.
Meanwhile, Dan and Sophia stood at the far end of the corridor, their eyes closed and their faces a picture of concentration. The chief looked back at them, and shouted,
“What’s the situation?” Dan’* expression cleared slightly, as he replied somewhat wearily.
“They seem to be drawing energy from the charged atmosphere. Also looks like they’re growing, healing their injuries—guess they’re self-regenerative. We’re trying to sever their environmental link, but* Chief, look out!” Simon and Jack had flattened themselves against the wall as a sphere of energy gathered in front of the lead warrior, and the chief quickly followed suit, barely avoiding a furious discharge of fire. He raised an eyebrow, and Dan shrugged.
“I guess they can transmute the energy into other forms.” The mage flinched at his newest finding.
“I’d back up if I were you, chief. Looks like they’re emitting some kind of toxic gas.” The two swordsmen and their leader backed up quickly, shields raised to absorb a hail of granite arrows. Jack shouted something incomprehensible, and three of the automata exploded. The others cheered, save Dan and Sophia, but their cheers soon turned to groans as the fractured pieces began to reconstruct themselves into a series of smaller golems. Jack grimaced, and then winced as Dan hit him in the back of the head.
“Does the term ‘self-regenerative’ mean anything to you?” Jack spun around and rolled his eyes, jutting his finger back the way he’d come. “Alright, I get it. Not my finest moment. Now, are you going to do something or what?” He was answered by a loud hum, and a louder crash as the stone warriors collapsed. Dan slumped against the wall, and Sophia fainted, the two drained by their efforts.

15-May-2013 06:57:09

Eno Remnant

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A half hour later, they were moving again. They emerged from the far end of a mountain, and followed a narrow trail until they spied a familiar road sign. As they marched onward, Jack nudged Dan.
“You owe me ten tonnes of gold ingot.” Dan’s eyebrows shot up magnificently, and then settled as he smiled. “Actually, I think you’ll find that you owe me ten tonnes of gold.” Jack frowned, unable to follow his friend’s train of thought.
“I’m only a simple warrior, Dan; you’ll have to explain yourself. After all, I’m pretty sure stone isn’t alive. Give me one reason why I should think otherwise.”
“I’ll give you seven, Jack,” he began counting them off on his fingers. “Movement, nutrition, respiration, reproduction, excretion, growth, and response to stimulus. They walked, they both fed on and breathed energy from their surroundings, they reproduced via transverse fission—splitting in two, if that helps your simple warrior mind comprehend; they excreted gas (and don’t even try to make a joke out of that, or so help me I’ll do to you what I did to them), they regenerated injuries... Oh yeah, and they tried to kill us, which seems like kind of a pretty big response to stimulus if you ask me.” Jack’s face sunk as he realised that the stone warriors had displayed every sign of life, biologically speaking. He was about to make some evasive comment, but was beaten to the punch by a firm insistence from the chief.
“You’re not getting out of this one, Jack. I suggest if you’re a bit strapped for cash, you should go rob a bank.” Jack’s eyes brightened, and he opened his mouth to speak again.
“We’re not actually robbing a bank, Jack.”
“Oh, come on chief! It wouldn’t even be that hard!”
“No, Jack.” The man’s face grew sour as he heard Simon and Sophia laughing behind him. Dan turned to face them, and grinned.
“Drinks are on Jack tonight.”

15-May-2013 06:58:05

Azigarath

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““Two tonnes of gold ingot.””
So, how’d he get that much gold to give?

“Simon and Jack drew their swords and flung themselves at the nearest automaton, striking at it in a bewildering array of blows that would have swiftly felled a mortal enemy.”
Uh, swords hitting stone? This would simply break the edges of the sword. Swords were also tools utilised for wrestling and tripping. For example, a sword tip could be placed between someone’s legs, moved behind the leg, and the rest of the sword put in front of the shin of the other leg. With a push, while holding the sword firmly, the opponent would probably fall backwards, seeing as one leg would be locked form the sword.

Armoured infantry did a lot of pushing and shoving, bashing their shoulders and their heads (if they wore helmets of course) into the enemy. Tripping, simply by placing your right foot behind your opponent’s right foot and then pushing him over, was also common.

The hilt of the sword was also a weapon; the pommel and quillons could be used to hit with, too. The sword could be held upside down, both hands grasping the blade (there is a way to grab a sword with your bare hands without cutting yourself, and this is by pinching with the palm and fingers over the edge), hilt facing up, and this way a warrior could stab with the down-facing tip, pierce with the quillon, and use the pommel as a club. Bucklers were offensive shields, too.

It is mentioned that a golem is made of lead, or perhaps “lead” as a “leader”?

And two magical people defeat the golems and the day is over with some discussion about robbing a bank.

A short story featuring a lack of description in combat, I suppose it does offer a read anyways. Enemies seem to be passive, and granite arrows apparently fly from nowhere. Despite being hit by heavy stone swords and arrows, all your characters are alright, and Dan and Sophie conveniently can regenerate themselves if they think about it.

26-May-2013 22:10:22

Azigarath

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If your characters wear armour, it should have been mentioned, otherwise when I imagine heavy stone swords and arrows hitting flesh, such punishment would do more than cause grunting. The automatons’ equipment is also not described at all, save they are mentioned to be Roman legionnaires. It’d be easier for the reader if they, “Were equipped like Roman legionnaires” rather than actually calling them Roman legionnaires.

Dialogue was relatively similar to what I have already heard basically everywhere in movies, video games and other novels, so I feel you could improve there, if you want to, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.

This story could easily be transformed into a full-length one, though. Too bad these forums are basically dead, but oh well, I look forward to your next project.

26-May-2013 22:10:30