Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2016 4:08:58 GMT
Pay the Piper
He had been walking through what should rightfully be called the Bamboo Jungle for the better part of the day now. Night time is quickly falling and Tranze can’t shake the feeling of another presence, a dark presence. Even though he can’t sense ki, he has that unshakable feeling of being watched and followed. And on top of all that, he’s starting to feel tired. The whole dimensional travel and lying in stasis for thousands of years really takes on toll. His grogginess causes him to take a misstep and trip over a rock in his path. He manages to plant his other foot down hard in front of him, catching his fall. “Curse it! If only I could fly over this damned jungle”. He kicks the rock he had stumbled over, sending it flying off into the dusk sky.
Despite starting to run through the forest, Tranze still hasn’t reached the other side. Its baffling… it seems to him that the forest has gotten larger on the inside than it appeared to be. However he just writes it off as him still being disorientated and taking a wrong turn… or two. Now night has fully fallen and deciding to set up camp for the night, Tranze sets out to make a fire. He sprints up a nearby tree, jumping from branch to branch. Chopping down each one with the edge of his hand as he passes from limb to limb. He lands gracefully on the ground as the lumber falls around him. Now that he’s set up a fire pit with the wood, he snaps his fingers and thrusts his arm forward guiding a small flame into the pile of lumber, setting it ablaze. After putting a couple of fried jungle critters in his belly, he turns in for the night. Falling asleep staring at the stars in the night sky, wondering when he’ll get home. To rule it with an iron fist, o-of course. A Prince of Darkness does not get homesick, after all.
The next thing he knows, he’s walking in a black void. Tranze looks around wondering where he is. A disembodied voice calls out, “You will be mine…”. Tranze snaps his head around but the voice seems to be coming from all around him. He replies with a scoff “Get in line” before the voice states, “Come to me…” apparently disregarding Tranze’s derision. Tranze opens his mouth to say something back but suddenly he awakens with a jolt to find a large black form vaulting through the air towards him. Hardly visible by the dimmed fire, the beast looks like a fusion of a black panther and a lion. But it’s abnormally large, its muscles rippling under its black coat.
Tranze just managed to roll backwards out of the way. Barely missing, its giant claws dig into the earth. It quickly brings its back paws to its front and executes another leap. This time Tranze is ready and delivers a powerful roundhouse kick. The blow lands firm and it repels the attack, but hardly damages the beast. It lands firm on its feet, just a couple of short paces away. It is now in the short moment of calmness that Tranze can clearly view it. The beast is surround by a wicked aura, black and wretched. Something that is clearly outside of normality. The beast is definitely strong, but Tranze can’t tell just how strong. It takes another pounce, this time rending Tranze’s side as it passes by.
Tranze winches and holds his side, this is the first time he’s felt such pain in quite a long time. But this only infuriates him. With a quick flash of light and a wave of the hand, a beam of electricity crashes into the big cat. The beast is flung through a nearby tree and lands hard, rolling over a few times before stopping. Tranze proceeds forward, anticipating the cat’s death for awakening him and having the nerve to wound him. But as he flings another thunderbolt, the beast dodges with great speed, fast enough to leave an afterimage. It bolts deeper into the jungle and Tranze frustratingly gives chase.
It was a trap! As soon as Tranze had the cat where he wanted, cornered against a large rock face. Another dark figure darts in from just outside of Tranze’s field of view. It smacks into him hard and sends him reeling off to the side, only keeping upright because he slammed into the side of the rock face. He looks up, stunned to see what attacked him. It was a gorilla, just as abnormally large as the cat and surrounded by the same dark aura. The gorilla slaps the ground and pounds its chest, letting out a bassy roar. Tranze pushes off against the rock face and back onto his feet. “What the hell is going on?” the beasts draw closer. “No matter” he holds out his hand, his scythe forming in his grasp, “Come to the slaughter!”.
He battled the beasts into the early morning, exchanging blows. After jumping over one of the cat’s attacks, he jumps off of its back in midair. He backflips and lands behind the gorilla. He connects with his scythe and while the gorilla’s skin is resistant, he still manages to leave a sizable gash in its back. The gorilla takes a step back from the fight, clearly in a lot of pain. He squares off against the lone cat. He sends beam after beam of lightning at it but moves with such speed that it disappears and reappears from side to side, dodging every attack. It launches at Tranze and he attacks with his scythe, cutting through its afterimage. He turns around just in time to see the claw before it connects against his skull. The momentum carries the beast over Tranze’s head and it lands a few yards behind him. Tranze turns to face it, blood running down his snarling face from the wound.
He charges forward with his scythe but the beast doesn’t yield, it comes straight for him. It goes for the killing blow, its fangs bared towards Tranze’s neck. The beast sinks its teeth deep into Tranze’s neck but a moment later Tranze’s features fade and he poofs out of existence entirely. Revealing that it was only a shadow of himself. Tranze appears crouched close to the ground underneath the airborne cat, his left palm aimed directly towards the beast. A ball of plasma forms in front of his open palm a moment before a beautiful beam of fire shoots from it. Engulfing the black cat and dissolving it entirely.
“Now you’re next, chimp” He points his scythe towards the now recovered gorilla. It slams its fists against its chest before sprinting forward on all fours. Tranze twirls and dances majestically between the gorilla’s flurry of blows. He lops off one of its hands, stunning the creature and creating an opening. He jumps back from it, raising his hand above his hand and throwing it forwards. Upon extension a baby blue beam of frost streams from his hand and collides with the gorilla, freezing it in a block of ice. Tranze collapses with exhaustion. And as he kneels there, he hears an approaching sound that he couldn’t hear before. It sounds like a wind instrument.
From the jungle marches a tall figure. Skinny and pale with blonde hair and baby blue eyes. He's dressed in clothing straight out of a fairy tale and possesses a strange otherworldly beauty about him like that of a mythical Elf. He’s blowing into a flute that’s covered in arcane runes. As he nears closer, the block of ice encasing the gorilla starts to vibrate. Noticing this, Tranze quickly fires a crimson ki blast at the ice, exploding it and the gorilla into tiny shards. When Tranze turns back to face the man, he’s closer than expected, no longer playing his flute.
The man smiles, sweet and innocent. But in the fake way a cashier smiles at every customer “Do you like my pretty pets?”. “So you’re the creature behind that dark presence” The Man winches at the word creature and replies, “Creature?! *ahem* Yes, my magic is truly magnificent” he lets out a chuckle. “Ah, yes. The weak always do use others to fight their battles for them” The man stomps his foot and yells, his voice taking on a different characteristic before he regains his composure. Going from a cool silky voice to a shrill voice that comes out in a shriek, “YOU’RE LUCKY MY MASTER WANTS YOU ALIVE OR I WOULD TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB. *ah hem* my name is Shaku, the beautiful enchanter” he strikes a dramatic pose at the end of his statement.
“And you are Tranze, the Prince of Darkness… kind of an unoriginal title… We’ve all heard a lot about you”. Tranze points a finger at Shaku, “I don’t care about you or your master, you step to me and you die”. Tranze takes a hard step forward, ready to attack but Shaku shakes his finger, “Uh uh uh, I don’t fight my own battles… Remember?” he starts to play his flute again and loud thuds become audible from the depths of the jungle.
Crashing through the bamboo trees springs an oversized Tyrannosaurus Rex. It bows its mighty head to its master before throwing its head back and letting out a bellow. The dark aura around it embers and pulsates. It proceeds forward in response to its master’s tune. Luckily it is a bit slower than the other two. Its incredible size and bulk slowing it down. It goes in for a low chomp but Tranze manages an arching jump over the top of it. Managing to stop his momentum in midair long enough to let loose a torrent of slashes from his scythe. But his strikes do nothing, the hide of the T-Rex is too strong. And his effort is rewarded with a tail swipe which knocks him out of the air before he can land.
Skidding along the ground before he manages to stop his momentum and bounces to his feet. “This is dangerous” he thought to himself. “It’s too strong and I’m far too hurt to let it hit me again… I’ll have to do something risky…”. By this time the T-Rex is barreling at him again. But this time around Tranze just stands there, holding his scythe tight while Shaku harps out his tune. The beast comes down with all those teeth in his massive jaw and snatches Tranze up in one gulp.
Shaku stops playing his tune and starts celebrating, jumping up and down, “Yahoo! I got him!” he continues with giddy laughter “I can’t wait to receive my reward!”. But that laughter is cut short by a loud slicing sound. The T-Rex stiffens up and freezes, as does Shaku. And then just as suddenly, Tranze bursts from out of the creatures gut, having cut himself out with his scythe. His momentum carries him about a dozen or so yards away. Where he’s kneeling down and gasping for air, now covered in a thick purple slime. “Damn you!” Shaku cries before harking on his flute again.
But this time as the dinosaur storms forward, Tranze simply reaches out his hand. His hand twists and turns as if performing delicate functions. In its weakened state Tranze is able to reach into its mind and fight for control. The T-Rex stops in its tracks, motionless as its mind is being yanked by two separate magical forces. Shaku is taken aback by this which causes him to stumble over his song. Creating just the opening Tranze was looking for. He wrestles control of the beast and all Shaku can do is raise his hands in a meaningless defense as the T-Rex chomps down on him and shakes its head violently like a dog with a chew toy. It lets go after several shakes and Shaku goes flying through the air like a ragdoll.
Tranze’s outstretched hand closes hard into a fist. The T-Rex immediately falls to the ground, lifeless. He strides up to Shaku, standing over him. Shaku lies still but manages to look up towards Tranze, “Damnit… They didn’t tell me you were this strong. They said it would be easy, that you were weakened…” he coughs up some blood. Tranze bends down and takes the flute from Shaku’s weak grasp. He clenched his fist around it until it shatters into tiny pieces, the dark energy levitating there for a moment before absorbing into Tranze. To Tranze’s surprise Shaku becomes encased in a bright light as soon as the flute is broken. The outline of his body shifts and changes. And when the light dissipates, the real Shaku is left lying there. A small impish creature, a stark difference to his former beauty.
Shaku lets out a cough and speaks, “its ok… My master will have the last laugh. There will be others and you will pay for destroying my beauty. You will become my master’s plaything, he will-” he’s cut short by a large crimson blast, ending his life. Tranze turns and walks away, battered and still covered in slime. He realizes that he had never had to work for his power. He was born strong. But his burning determination will assure his ascension.