Ronin Of Dreams
Still Watching...
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Pitch, timbre, intensity; these were all subtle nuances within the complex expression of the human scream. Even the complex intonation of the most heinous screech was usually tailored to specific cause-and-effect. But to a F.E.R.R.E.T.? Screams were the effect caused by their assaults, and the Lightsplitter took neither pleasure nor discomfort from the racket which resonated from her slight frame. Nor did its attention linger upon it, for once the scream was registered, it was summarily disregarded in favor of other, more important sounds picked up by its robust audible sensors. Its ears pricked at the soft sounds of pooling liquid oozing onto the ground, but that too was swiftly tuned out in favor of something far more important. The seismic quality of rhythmic thumping of paw on metal, with its attendant rattles of chain and clanking of plate, demanded attention over drama for it carried the quality of impending danger.
The Vastaa was an interesting being, from a ferretine perspective one of equal parts pure bulk and armor plating. Certainly there would be some form of weakness to be exploited by the infinitely smaller construct, but it would also be an opponent with far less margin of error to face. It had been disregarded so far by the charging behemoth as well, all to the good were it to decide to take advantage of the sudden absence of the shopkeeper to lash out at the next nearest target. Yet for all the analysis working through difference engines and flywheel cogs in the constructs clockwork brain, a single scenario subroutine planted deep in its psyche short-circuited the entire process rather abruptly.
One does not provoke a bear. It ends badly, and usually with quite the mess.
The F.E.R.R.E.T. was not about to override its base nature to suddenly engage Kriege, much to the possible disappointment of the wealth of spectators behind their one-way walls. In the Finals, were they both to reach that vaunted grouping by advancement, perhaps its Will and Calling would be forced into that decision. For now, each ponderous step of earthshaking might gave the construct different ideas. Its frame shrank slightly, emulating a soft exhalation, before the F.E.R.R.E.T. flowed back onto all fours into the space vacated by Kai. Onyx eyes spun, not quite watching Kriege pass onwards in his lumbering rush towards the other duel nearby, that of Zenz and Makelyth. Vision tunneled downwards, focusing intently on the sway of the protective chain mail along the Vastaa’s hind legs. It began hopping sideways, waiting, timing each motion against the percussive rhythm of pawfalls onto piping. Reaching out with its left paw, natural claws straining to strike just right…
Metal sparked against chain, then the minute construct felt itself yanked clean off its paws and into the air. Twisting its body to ride the slack, the ferret scrabbled up with a series of leaps and bounds to perch tentatively upon Kriege’s lower back. The feeling of undulation from organic muscles moving a mass of that size...the F.E.R.R.E.T. failed to conceive any grace in the motion. There was power, plenty and in gross excess, but none of the agility that the construct had been raised in knowing. As it carefully picked its way forward against rushing wind on such a perilous “ground”, it looked ahead to see what Kriege could see. A plan crystallized in its head. Unlike bears, which it was warned away from on principle, dragons, drakes, drakels, and other form of dragonkin were something that every model of Project F.E.R.R.E.T. had been borne to tackle.
An object in motion tends to stay in motion, and denied stealth, the construct knew that motion was its best friend. Just as Kriege neared the duo of Zenz and Makelyth, the F.E.R.R.E.T. leapt off the Vastaa’s shoulder, struggling for as much height as it could get. Its leap wasn’t directly towards either, however, but between them as the roiling flames of Makelyth’s fireball closed the distance. The ferret tucked its body in on itself, not quite a ball, and spun lazily in the air in a somersault when the unstable spell exploded outwards. Heat washed over its metallic frame, flash-melting the tips of swathes of fur where an organic would be singed, and interrupting the shimmer about itself.
Had it leapt straight towards Zenz, the damage by flame might have been greater still. Yet the construct had chosen its place in the air well, despite the inconvenience of gaining purchase upon the Vastaa’s shoulder spikes to do so, and had gotten above the origin of the blast as it had desired. The shock wave pushed at the lightweight frame, taking away its forward momentum almost entirely by pushing it hard upwards and to one side, back towards whence the fireball had come. The F.E.R.R.E.T. had to spin more, from the recoil, and it puffed out its fur as it charged its pawclaws with generated photons as it waited to hit its apex.
The secondary shock wave of dust, dirt, and a storm of rock shards was unanticipated. While the extra burst of momentum pushed the ferret’s arcing leap over Makelyth’s head, percussive rock had more success than flame in damaging the construct. What little debris actually connected with the Lightsplitter bent metal and cracked crystal. Fur stuck out oddly from the impact of several small stones, denting the underlying plating and damaging the robust internal mechanisms. Its longer crystal blade, the same that had scored deep on Kai's ankle not moments ago, cracked along its length even as an inch was snapped clean off. Others, though still secured beneath its fur, became pitted and marred. There was an awareness at the level of subconscious of the damage, a knowledge that its movement wouldn't be quite as swift and organic, but there was no pain to be felt. Just cold logic ,acknowledgement of fact, and elimination of other avenues of assault.
There was also an absence of the distraction of pain. Losing the reach of its longer blade would create difficulties, but the game of reach was never going to be in its favor. What it had already had drawn would have to serve, simple as that. Importantly, the pair of “claw” blades came through undamaged, and had begun to glow from the power kept in confinement within the crystalline matrices. It took the construct a few moments, a span of several heartbeats in a human, to judge its new arc and take aim. Had the ferret's thoughts distilled to a few choice words rather than a flow of information and calculation beyond a sense of language, they might have been And...there, optimal! With a flick of its tail and a roll of its shoulders, the F.E.R.R.E.T. slowed its spin just enough to bring the glittering, charged blades in its right paw in a sharp slash towards Makelyth’s head.
Liquid drops of light, each a riotous ruckus of rainbow, shot out from the blades in a scattered spray towards Makelyth’s scaly hide. There was even the sweetly scintillating sound of sizzling as Light displaced air in lethal purpose. None of the drops were that damaging, much more akin to minute pebbles thrown out of a sling really, but in quantity they could hurt. Possibly debilitate were Makelyth to glance skyward - or would it be steam-ward in this deadly arena? So too was there a recoil as the magic carried nothing for concepts of mass, pushing the ferret backwards and steam-wards. Gravity would not be a kind mistress to the construct, when its ersatz flight finally came to an end, and physics reasserted itself, but subverting the physical reality had its perks in making it a hard target to spot amidst the haze of light above.
Elsewhere, a girl clutching a homemade doll with a very fancy scarlet robe draped across its cornhusk skin, burst into giggles at the sight of a flying ferret flinging rainbows. “Wheeeee~!”
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