The Purging of the Realms

[Vadriel]

Kneeling on the floor, summoning his energies, J'kar looks up at the firewall, then Ian. "I imagine it could hurt her, but she's one tough mother...literally." He smirks. "We could give it a try, but it probably won't do that aweful much to her...good idea though." He thinks. "Hey! I seem to recall that in the past, freezing them has subdued them. If we could capture her, then bring her to the town...all could see what sort of heroes we are...on second thought, that might not be a good idea. It would attract serious attention, and that's the last thing we need...I think we'd better just kill her. But freezing her may be a start. I--" His attention is jerked to the firewall, as the queen plunges through the weakening barrier. She stands, bent over, and slowly straightens up as the flames course over her body. She looks at each of the adventurers, sizing them up...and snarls at J'kar, obviously recognizing him as the one who created the firewall. She rears back, then charges full out at him. J'kar's face turns a much lighter green, and he leaps into the ceiling and hangs just out of reach. "Umm...guys? Perhaps a little help here." The other members of the party gather themselves and attack.

 

[DragonOfChaos]

Ian launched himself from his kneeling position, flying above and behind the queen. Focusing his energies into a singal blast, he unleashed a torrent of silver flame over the queen. Layer after layer of ice built up over her chitonous exoskeleton. Her arms still stretched for J'kar, but they slowed, and stopped. She was now covered in a thick layer of ice. "We have to think of something fast. That won't hold her much longer than your barrier." He sank to the ground, breathing heavily, exhausted from his endeavor.

 

[Vadriel]

J'kar backflipped off of the ceiling, spreading his wings to glide down to some distance away from the queen. He knelt and begun chanting low incantations as flame built up around him. He thrust his hands toward the queen and shot out a searing jet of flame. It smacked into the queen and burned, unfortunately doing little other than to melt the ice encasing her. "Oh, crap." She shrieked, dashed forward, and lashed out with her tail, impacting J'kar in the chest and sending him flying into a stalactite.

 

[DragonOfChaos]

Ian sighed. He hadn't been thinking about something quite like that, but queen's armor seemed slightly...different. Instead of a hard, iridescent shimmer of an insect, it had become more of a dull, cold metallic color. Ian knew there was something to it, but couldn't figure out what. Then he had an idea. He flew at the creature's back, taking advantage of the distraction J'kar was making. He aimed a kick at a large piece of shell, one that retained the dull color. When he made contact, he heard a crunch. Flying away, he saw a portion of the armor had cracked off, revealing pulsating black flesh that oozed green acidic fluids. The queen shrieked and turned to face the new threat, swiping at Ian with its limbs. "J'kar!" Ian shouted, "Aim for the dull sections of armor!"

 

[Vadriel]

Spotting one on the Queen's chest, just below her secondary set of arms, J'kar focused his energies and let loose with a powerful jet of flame. It smashed into the damaged carapace with a crack, and another section of armor fell away, oozing blood that sizzled upon the ground. The Queen's attention shifted from J'kar to Ian and back several times. She hissed at J'kar, apparently seeing him as a greater threat. She turned back to Ian and lashed out with her tail, impaling him in the shoulder and with a jerk of her tail she whipped him off of her tailblade straight into Azrael, sending them both sprawling to the ground. She then turned and barreled straight for J'kar, who was muttering in Demon, spiraling his hands building up energy. His face twisted in agony as he, expending most of his remaining energy, summoned up from the demon world a massive beast made of flame, molded identically to match the Queen. The two titans crashed into each other and exploded into a fury of claws against flaming claws, teeth against burning teeth, and tail against raging tail. J'kar slumped, exhausted, struggling to ignite an inner flame, to feed from its energy output and replenish his stores, with little success. All he could really do is watch his creation battle it out with the unearthly monster from another realm.

 

[DragonOfChaos]

Ian was dazed. The wound he had recieved wasn't all that bad, and his body would be able to function perfectly once it was healed. But the queen's seemingly nonchalant way of dealing with him had ignited something...feral in him. Disentangling himself from Azrael, he stood, his left arm hanging limp at his side. He reached deep down into his reserves, and summoned a last bit of magical energy, crystalizing the air around his right hand to create his arm-scythe again. Roaring a battle-cry, he charged. The queen's back was to him, and she was fully preoccupied with the beast J'kar had summoned. He dodged past the whipping tail and lept to her back. Running up her spine, he reached the place where her neck joined her enormous, oblong head. Pulling back, he plunged the blade of ice straight into that point. When the blade had buried itself in as far as it could, he ripped it out, and began to hack at the queen's neck. The tail whipped back around, catching him in the side. The tail blade didn't hit him, but the blow flung him into the cave wall, causing him to nearly black out. "That," he muttered, "is one tough bitch." He then blacked out. A slow trickle of blue energy wrapped around his wound, slowly encasing it in ice to stop the blood flow.

 

[Vadriel]

The queen thrashed in pain and rage, her flailing limbs and tail crashing throughout the cave, snapping stone formations like twigs and sending rubble flying every which way. The flame-queen that J'kar had summoned was hit dead-center with a piece of debris and dissipated, but the queen continued to twist and thrash in agony. J'kar took the opportunity to surge forward with his last vestiges of strength and leap into the air and bring his scythe down in a powerful stroke at her already damaged neck. The queen turned to meet him, but she was too slow. The scythe blade bit deep into her neck, severing what was already weakened. As J'kar fell back to the ground at her feet, the queen staggered and took a few steps, before her head slid off and slammed to the ground, the body collapsing shortly after. J'kar rolled to narrowly miss being crushed by her falling corpse and, avoiding the blood which sizzled on the ground, he dragged himself over to Ian. Upon reaching him, he placed his hand on Ian's unwounded shoulder and shook him awake.

"It's okay...she's dead."

 

[DragonOfChaos]

"Thank the gods above..." he stopped short, looked at J'kar, and added, "...and below, I suppose." He felt the thin casing of ice on his shoulder. "I hope you know the healing arts. The ice only stops the blood flow." He looked around. "Where is that spirt that has been following us? Maybe it can tell us what to do now."

 

[Vadriel]

J'kar looks around...wondering himself where Sha-kul has been...perhaps the caverns deflect spiritual energy? There's really no telling. "I'm not entirely sure, Ian...and although I do have limited abilities for healing, my power is much too exhausted to perform them...the exertion could likely kill me...however, with the aliens having residence in these caves, there won't be anything else in here...we can likely move on unmolested. With the Queen dead, we'll probably be totally fine until we move out of the Hive's former range. I suggest we check out the Queen's chamber. Perhaps there we can find out where they all came from."

 

[DragonOfChaos]

"Maybe we should." He attempted to stand, and pain seared through his body. He fell back with a gruff, short laugh. "Or maybe we can wait here for a few moments, and rest up. What do you say?"

 

[Vadriel]

"Hmm...perhaps that is best. Luckily, my power regenerates quite rapidly. I have a sort of internal fire that feeds off of my life energy, and in return creates enough power output to fuel my healing and abilities...it won't be long before I am fully regenerated, and can heal you as well...perhaps fifteen minutes should be all I need to recuperate, and fifteen minutes is likely not going to matter to the fate of the Realms...so I say we wait a short time before we move on."

 

[DragonOfChaos]

"I'll be fine by then. My body heals quickly enough. But being flung into stone walls a few times tends to take the strength from a warrior." He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. "What do you suppose will be in the queen's chamber? She doesn't seem to be the type to horde treasure."

 

[Vadriel]

"No, for the most part, material items don't seem to be of any importance to the Aliens, but I've been feeling something pulling on my mind since we entered these caves. It's rumored that Aliens communicate on some sort of telepathic wave frequency, and my guess is that she was drawn to it as well, and the place where she made her home may be near the source, if not actually with it. I'm rather interested in what is contained within her chamber."

Time passes as J'kar relates the feelings he's been getting from the unknown source within the caverns, and he slowly feels himself returning to strength. In about twenty minutes' time, he feels back to top form, and can see that Ian appears ready as well. Picking himself up, he glances at Ian and asks, "You ready?"

 

[DragonOfChaos]

"I'm ready. I'm no cave dweller, I can't help to find the way. But you can sense the lair, so lead on."

 

[Kitty]

((Nuuuuu... ._.;; *feels inredibly dumb* Er, I haven't posted in a long time. I missed the fight, I missed the Queen, I missed the fun. >.> But! Am I practically still here? o.o 'Cause I do wanna come back....sooo...J'kar, tell me the okay/no and I'll think of something...like, maybe I wasn't there because I was in some other tunnel killing something else? Er...yessss. >>))

 

[-Azrael666-]

((I think you were there, just standing in the back ground looking pretty ^_^ I haven't been too active either, but that was mainly because there's not much that sheer agility could do against the queen.. I didn't want to get in the way I'm following J'kar, like Ian, and I'm guessing all the other inactive people will be as well ))

 

[DragonOfChaos]

((Don't forget, you'll probably have a bit of a headache since I fell on top of you and all. And don't worry, Kitty, J'kar understood your predicament of moving and all. I'm sure he'll let you continue.))

 

[Vadriel]

((Oh, yes! Definitely! I figured you guys were looking a bit helpless in the background, seeing as arrows would be useless against such a massive creature like the Queen. Besides, a small fry like Kender (that's her name, right?) wouldn't much like fighting a Queen...she'd likely die. Sooo...I gave you guys the benefit of the doubt, and assumed you'd jump in when you could. And you didn't disappoint! Ok, shall we then?))

J'kar stretched and unslung his scythe from its resting place on his back. Leading the team through the opening that the Queen emerged from, he paused. "Wait a sec..." He grinned. He turned back and picked up the Queen's severed head. "In EVERY story, the person who kills the Queen gets to keep her head as a trophy, and this would be sure to draw the ladies back at my crib." Taking one of his belts, and stringing it through the skull's jaws, he slung it over his back and resumed through the passage.

They walked for some time down a fairly steep inclined tunnel, until they got to a large chamber covered in alien secretion, yet thankfully clear of aliens. Apparently the Queen had sent every alien she had at them, and they were all now dead. In the center of the chamber, a large mound of alien webbing was piled up, likely the place she squatted to lay eggs. As J'kar neared it, the telepathic pulse in his head grew stronger. Laying his hand on it, he nodded. "It's in here."

He took his scythe and began cutting away slabs of web, hacking until he had destroyed the mound, and within was glittering a beautiful war axe, shining with a dark glow of power. It seemed to be carved purely of obsidian, and the entire thing was etched with arcane figures and designs. When he saw it, J'kar's eyes lit up.

"You guys...we've found the first of the ten elemental weapons...the Sh'brakt Axe of War, also known as the elemental weapon of Rock."

 

[DragonOfChaos]

Ian eyed the axe thoughtfully. The elemental force pounded within it like the waves of a stormy sea. "So, who of our team shall wield this weapon?" It didn't look like any on the team had an affinity with rock. It would be interesting to see who would have the ability to use the weapon.

 

[Vadriel]

"I really don't know. Whoever it is must be strong enough to use it...and have abilities that complement it. Actually, I think you, Ian, would likely be best to wield it, at least until it is placed in the altar in the realm of the demons. It's abilities to turn much of normal matter into stone goes fairly well with freezing. Stone something, then freeze it, and it shatters. Useful attack, but likely very draining. I'd think that someone as strong-willed as you could likely use the weapon to its fullest, once you learn to use it through experience."