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Enheduanna
Sep Member 2023

Enheduanna

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Since I've described once before the process by which Natasha heals herself, I'm going to skip all that.

Interlude: Sometimes, If You Want Something Done, You Have To Do It Yourself

When the Shadowforger steps out of a rift and back into the Tower, the Night Lily is nowhere to be seen. Nor heard. Nor felt. Even the Shadowforger's affinity for power cannot detect her; Hannah's aura is damped to her body and wrapped within her own, time-locked timeline. As far as the universe is concerned, the Night Lily's power doesn't exist - so how could Natasha ever find her with it?

Further shrouded behind an invisibility spell--one that hides its caster from the entire electromagnetic spectrum--and walking far too softly to be heard by even one such as the Shadowforger, Hannah stalks her from the left, matching each approaching step with one of Natasha's own.

She is within a metre of her target when the Shadowforger explodes into motion, a battle-instinct honed by five centuries of killing warning her of an enemy she can't even see. Natasha spins, sword slicing out in a vicious, circular arc around her body; Hannah dodges with almost contemptuous ease, jumping on top of the blade itself, and using its own weightlessness against her enemy.

To the Shadowforger, her sword has no mass; compensated for by the magical equivalent of inertial dampeners, their output increases on automatic in an instant the moment Hannah lands. Natasha does not even notice she's gained an extra passenger until the Night Lily's rapier lashes out, piercing her throat in three separate places.

Of course, given the nature of Natasha's armour, that does nothing, but it stuns her long enough for Hannah to knock off the next part of her checklist - flicking a needle at the Shadowforger's neck. It multiples into a thousand as it crosses the six inches between the Night Lily's hand and its target, each and every one piercing deep into Natasha's collar.

15-Feb-2015 11:13:15

Enheduanna
Sep Member 2023

Enheduanna

Posts: 16,566 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Once again, the unique properties of Natasha's armour protect her from any lethal damage; at best, all the Night Lily's assault does is weaken her throatguard further.

Hannah flips herself off the Shadowforger's blade as the space she used to occupy is slashed to pieces by a hundred blades of shadow, twisting a hole space and time with a flicker of arcana to appear a few metres away. She hits the floor too loudly--even though a teleport--to avoid Natasha's keen ears, but that doesn't matter - Hannah's gained the room to enact the next part of her plan.

Fog blooms around the two combatants; it's cold and thick and almost solid, and even Natasha is having trouble moving her way through it. The Shadowforger would burn it all away, but she's channeled too much of her Exaltation recently in healing herself, and she doesn't yet have the strength to ignite her soul once again - so, instead, she simply lays to waste the world around her with barrages of her own shadow-needles. A strange choice--rather than teleporting out, as she no doubt could--but never let it be said that a furious Natasha is a rational one.

Hannah, on the other hand, is no longer in the cloud - she teleports outside--this time, the cloud muffles the sound of her re-appearance before it reaches Natasha--and, sliding under an errant barrage of shadow-needles, slams her foot into the tiles of the Tower. That impact is loud enough for the Shadowforger to hear, and she spins to face toward the Night Lily, hurling a long, scything wave of darkness at her.

Hannah dispels it with a wave of her hand--cancelling out the wavelengths of negative energy with their equals and opposites in magnitude through the principles of deconstructive interference--as her own attack, a vast, gaping fissure through the stone floor of the Tower, opens up beneath Natasha, pelting her with rocks and threatening to drop her into an impossibly endless pit.

15-Feb-2015 11:13:22 - Last edited on 15-Feb-2015 11:27:32 by Enheduanna

Enheduanna
Sep Member 2023

Enheduanna

Posts: 16,566 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
This time, Natasha teleports out, appearing directly behind where Hannah launched her attack from.

It's a move entirely anticipated; Hannah flips herself up and over the Shadowforger's head as her sword rips through where the Night Lily was supposed to be. Natasha turns back rapidly, spinning her blade in a deceptively simply flourish for a weapon of its size, but she's not quite fast enough to avoid a second wave of needles riddling, this time, the left-hand side of her armour's collar.

A three-hundred-and-sixty degree wave of shadow lashes out from the Shadowforger's body, and this time Hannah is the one not quite fast enough - she's tossed away, tumbling head over heels until she lands almost-gingerly on her feet. Her defensive forcefield protected her from the worst effects of the blast, but the concussive force was nothing to sneeze at.

Nevertheless, she recovers just in time to roll out of the way of Natasha's next attack--the Night Lily might still be invisible to most of the Shadowforger's senses, but hitting the ground makes a noise --and step between her second and third as she suddenly accelerates , channeling arcana into her limbs and mind. It's not a permanent effect, but it's enough to get her within Natasha's reach - and Hannah capitalises on the way she's cramped her opponent, by stabbing her rapier deep, deep into the right side of her neck.

For the third or fourth time in the battle, the Shadowforger shrugs off what should be a lethal would, and retaliates by punching Hannah in the face. Hard . It shatters the Night Lily's forcefield and her jaw, leaving her in no position to avoid the follow-through.

Natasha's sword rips through Hannah's body, with the sort of force needed to shatter mountains - and does absolutely nothing, as, somehow, the Night Lily is not where the Shadowforger thought she was.

It seems even the great Natasha Dæmondöttr sometimes falls for the trickery of illusions.

15-Feb-2015 11:13:31 - Last edited on 15-Feb-2015 11:53:13 by Enheduanna

Enheduanna
Sep Member 2023

Enheduanna

Posts: 16,566 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Hannah's response to her not-quite-death is simple - she flicks a hand out toward Natasha, her scarf coiling down her neck, across her arm, and out toward the Shadowforger's neck, like the tongue of some strange, terrifying beast. It wraps around Natasha's neck in her moment of confusion, and then constricts , its edges as hard as steel and twice as sharp.

The collar of the Shadowforger's armour, already weakened by the Night Lily's previous attacks, shatters . Behind it is pale skin, riddled with scars and crusted with golden blood by Natasha's previous escape from her shackles.

It seems that Hannah has paid attention to the Shadowforger's previous battles - after all, the only time she's ever been truly wounded is when her armour has been broken first , exposing her body to this dimension, as opposed to the one in which it usually resides.

The scarf retracts as the Night Lily sprints toward Natasha, her rapier levelled at her throat.

In response, the Shadowforger simply smiles, and from behind her, darkness rises , forging itself into a hundred thousand blades of shadow.

With the absent flick of a finger, they hurl themselves at Hannah, shattering the speed of sound in the first second of their movement.

"Gotcha."

The shadows disappear, as if they had never been, as Hannah performs the same trick a second time, cancelling their wavelengths through deconstructive interference. It's a trick that only should have worked once - except Natasha didn't see it the first time, trapped in the fog as she was, and unable to sense any of Hannah's expenditure of power because of how it negated perfectly--and was negated perfectly by--her own.

The Night Lily is within five feet of the Shadowforger now - within the range of the aura that Yuriel sensed but did not fully understand. Natasha doesn't fully understand it either, but her mind feels slower , less powerful .

That, ultimately, is what kills her.

15-Feb-2015 11:27:47 - Last edited on 15-Feb-2015 12:18:19 by Enheduanna

Enheduanna
Sep Member 2023

Enheduanna

Posts: 16,566 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Hannah's arm lashes out again, her rapier lunging toward the Shadowforger's throat - she dodges to the side--not even considering teleportation--and straight into the path of the Night Lily's scarf.

Once again, it wraps around Natasha's neck. Once more, it hardens to a strength beyond steel. Once more, it starts to cut.

The only difference is that this time, it is cutting flesh.

In the space of half a second, Natasha's head hits the floor.

Her body follows it not long after.

The Shadowforger's armour vanishes in a puff of shadow, and her sword clatters against the stone as blood leaks from the stump of her neck. It hisses as it eats away the tiles.

Hannah turns, and curtseys, a gesture made terrifyingly gentle when compared to what she has just done.

"Did this little Hannah do a good job?"

---

Yes.

Yes you did, Hannah.

You managed to accomplish what so many others have tried and failed miserably.

And guess how you did it?

You followed the clues!

(Seriously, all I did there was take advantage of every single one of Natasha's weaknesses that I've described or that have been capitalised on (in some cases, i.e. Wane's, more than once by different characters ), and killed her with them. Any of you could have done most of what Hannah did using your own powers)

---

I should clarify that Natasha's not gone. There are a lot more stages to the cessation of existence that just death of the body , in a setting like this one.

But I can't be bothered writing out what happens next at the moment, so I'll handle that later. Let you all mess around with her 'death' for a bit.

15-Feb-2015 11:53:28 - Last edited on 15-Feb-2015 12:36:42 by Enheduanna

Vahlok
Nov Member 2008

Vahlok

Posts: 1,696 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Me: Alright, Wayne, I think it has been far too long since I last had a duel, but it's been even longer since Cannon has, so-

*I hear someone off to my left shout 'Wait!'. I look to the source of the interruption, to see Everyone, of all people, running to me, his right hand in the air, desperately trying to gesture for me to listen to him. He stops a few yards from me, clearly out of breath*

Everyone: Wait...

*I notice that he has his sword on his belt and his shield in his left hand. It looks like he decided to keep them*

Me: Ah, Everyone! It's been a while! What's up?

Everyone: I... I want to duel him.

*A slight mixture of confusion and intrigue spreads across my face*

Me: Why? I thought you wanted to stay out of combat.

Everyone: I did, but you know how I am. People just keep attacking me, people I don't even know. I've died and come back so many times, I just want it to stop. But I can't do that if I don't know how to defend myself, so I've been practising when I can, but there's only so much I can learn from wooden targets. I want to learn properly , like you did.

Me: Hmm... Very well, but you will need a bit more than just your sword and shield. Firstly, you aren't even wearing armour.

Everyone: What? Oh, right. Yeah. I don't have any.

Me: Hold on just a moment. Cannon, get Everyone some armour that can suit his... abilities. And a couple of other weapons, too, he may turn out to be better with something different to just a regular straight sword.

Cannon: Will do. *Teleports away*

Me: Now then, take this.

*I hand Everyone a copy of my Portal Device*

Me: Should you ever find yourself teleport out during the duel, you can use this to return. Keep it, so that if you find yourself in front of someone you can't beat, you can at least escape.

Everyone: Wow, thank you!

*Cannon teleports back with a few sets of standard armours, weapons, and even a couple of shields*

Cannon: There, anything you could want.

(Continuing)

15-Feb-2015 13:41:18

Vahlok
Nov Member 2008

Vahlok

Posts: 1,696 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
*Everyone appears stunned for a few seconds at the options before him. He starts by examining the choices of armours, displayed on some armour stands. He feels the weights of them, the flexibility, before choosing to wear a set of leather armour, reinforced in most places with steel, without reducing the flexibility it offers any more than the weight of the metal itself*

Me: Want to be able to move around quickly, then.

Everyone: Well, I'd rather not get hit at all, instead of relying on armour to make being hit not kill me on the spot.

Me: Fair enough.

*Everyone then takes a look at the shields, comparing them to his own. His is wooden, with steel along the edge and at the centre, to guard the hand behind it. Some of these other shields are smaller, some a lot larger. Wooden, metal, flat, rounded, all sorts of designs.*

Everyone: Well, I don't want a shield that's too heavy, but large enough to block or deflect.

Me: The shields with the round protrusions can deflect a lot easier, but they need to be metal. Wooden shields like yours can block well, and the wood can catch blades that dig too deep into them, but obviously that starts to break the shield apart.

*Everyone picks up a buckler, then picks up a slightly larger rounded shield. It's a little smaller than his wooden one, and a bit heavier due to the metal, but he appears to like the way it moves when he makes deflecting motions with it.*

*He then turns to the weapons. Immediately disregarding the heavy weapons, he tries a few swings and stabs with a few different weapons. A curved sword, a rapier, an axe, a mace, even a spear. But ultimately it seems like he prefers his own longsword over them all.*

*He then looks at the ranged weapons. He decides on a compound bow, and even decides to carry a revolver*

Everyone: *smiling* Just in case I find someone a bit too strong. *holsters the revolver*

(Continuing)

15-Feb-2015 13:41:29 - Last edited on 15-Feb-2015 14:16:19 by Vahlok

Vahlok
Nov Member 2008

Vahlok

Posts: 1,696 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Me: Now, I should point out, all of these weapons and armours aren't special in any way, they don't have any secret hidden powers or abilities. Your opponents will.

Everyone: I know. I don't have any 'powers' either, at least, none I control. It's better that my equipment reflects myself. Same as yours does.

Me: Indeed. Now, go and see what you can learn!

*Everyone holds up the Portal Device I gave him, looking at it for a second before teleporting down into The Arena, close to Wayne*

Everyone: So, you don't mind training me as you duel me, right? I'll give this everything I've got, I promise.

*Everyone puts the Portal Device away and draws his longsword, settling into a guarding stance*



I figured that it would be a good idea to switch things up by using Everyone, a well known character despite not really doing all that much. It also allows for something different, which is the exact sort of thing I think FF needs.

15-Feb-2015 14:10:31 - Last edited on 15-Feb-2015 14:19:38 by Vahlok

very mad guy
Feb Member 2017

very mad guy

Posts: 7,715 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
*i scratch my helmet in confusion as i see everyone being taught defensive techniques*

"so... are you everyone? that man who always gets instantly killed by strangers only to come back to life?"
They see me rollin', they better run...

15-Feb-2015 14:35:32

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