There was only one that that ran through Nox's head as the firelight illuminated the monsters. Fuck! There were masses of them. They weren't even close to the nest. Thye breed like rabbits and they were moving closer and closer to the surface each time they came down here. Soon the underground city would be overrun with them and then Moscow would be next.
Ivan started an onslaught with his razor disks. They were coming too fast and they needed to slow them down. He was working the throwing but soon they'd be on top of them. Nox dropped the whip weave and thought quickly. They could do this if they didn't get swarmed. Funneling them in this tunnel like this could work but there was no narrow passages... But he could make one. It would have to be a variation of the stone wall he could create.
Nox wove two earth weaves into the stone around them. One weave on either side. It extended into the ground past the hardened tunnel walls. He pulled the weaves out from the ground. The earth shifted and Nox nearly fell. But the walls moved where his weaves were placed. It wasn't really moving he the walls were built out of the earth weaves. Nox pulled until there was barely room for one man to get through from top to bottom of the tunnel. He didn't know how thick it was or how long it would hold.
The narrow passage would still let several through at a time, but at least now they couldn't be swarmed. Nox let Ivan take range. He pulled up a sword with fire racing along the edges. It wasn't his favorite weapon but he wasn't about to go hand to hand with them. Nox almost wished for the cross bow.
Nox started making arrows of fire and earth and flung them towards the monsters. He could do that for a while, maybe none would get in close.
Edited by
Nox, Nov 17 2015, 10:21 AM.
Ivan could only spare a bit of attention to what Nox was doing, the things were simply coming too fast. He also started to feel a bit of strain. Nox had been right. This was easily as much of a workout as what he did every day to keep in shape.
But Nox was smart. However he did it- and Ivan could kind of see how the weaves of earth and air and even fire anchored themselves into the tunnel's side walls and then angled out to create a funnel. A Funnel that pointed at them, which was not necessarily great, he thought at first. But the number of creatures coming through was lessened now and he could focus his shots on the opening.
Still the continuous strain was taking its toll and he wasn't able to weave as fast. Best he could figure, this was exactly like an endurance work out. You don't just run 5 miles the first time. You train up to it. Now that he could use the power whenever he wanted, he was going to train himself to last longer, build up his....well, not muscles. Whatever it was that allowed him to do this. Who knows? Maybe you can use more power too, like you can put up more weight the longer you've been training. Nox was stronger than him, after all. Made sense and all that.
However, he's not get the chance to do some power-workouts if he was dead. And now that he had a handle on his power, he was going to start to really use it. The city needed him. So....how to stop these things more effectively?
Even as he wove, he began to experiment with his disks, seeing if he could feed them more fire and overlaying with air in a certain way. That seemed right. It felt like he was winding a spring or something. He wasn't sure. Maybe compressing them. The next creature that was struck seemed to explode from where the now rounded disk made contact. It wasn't a massive explosion but it was effective.
He took the moment to adjust the weave even more and feed more fire into the disk before the overlay, creating more pressure. This time the explosion was larger and took out a pair of creatures that were attempting to climb over the bodies that were clogging the mouth of the funnel.
It had all taken a couple of minutes but he looked at Nox and couldn't help but smile grimly even as he wove a large disk now, as wide as his shoulders. He was tired but he pushed through, compressing the fire disk down until it was as small as his hand and through it was hard as he could through the opening. The explosion and the screams were deafening.
He hoped that their number had been cut down considerable- and that Nox could take out more of them- because he maybe had only enough for one more shot.
Ivan was doing a pretty good job of keeping them from breaking through in mass waves even after the walls had been extended. Nox took on Aria's job, keeping those that got through away from them. He disliked being that close to those things. Nox eventually tied off the sword so he could throw weaves easier. He hadn't even realized until he'd done so that he'd been holding it and throwing fireballs at the creatures.
It was something he couldn't do while trying but it seemed to come naturally. He wasn't sure he could do it if he tried though. But there was hardly any time to think of the concept as the walls funneling towards them started to crumble.
The pile of bodies was slowing them down and Nox wondered when they would stop. It was probably best to block the corridor off. There seemed to be more that kept coming like they were multiplying as they killed them, though Nox knew that wasn't true - at least he hoped these weird creatures didn't replicate like the hydra heads or three headed dog that guarded hell. Nox was too busy to wrack his brain for the creatures true name. It didn't matter anyway.
Nox concentrated on throwing fireballs, he could tell Ivan was slowing down as his discs took longer and longer to create. He wasn't going to be able to hold up fireballs much longer. Nox had even started using the small stones as projectiles but they weren't doing as much damage as he'd hope. Bringing down the walls was probably not a good idea.
Nox had a different idea. Nox created a wall of air spanning the length and height of the corridor. A few feet in front of him, before it solidified he yelled, "Hold." Hopefully Ivan wouldn't throw anymore discs - that would be bad.
The wall of air solidified and the creatures caught in the air wall dangle before the air cleaved them in two. The remaining creatures slammed into the wall of air. Nox used all his strength and pushed the new wall forward using it like a plow. The creatures that got caught too close were squashed underneath the unforgiving wall. The others were pushed back.
Nox watched the tunnel sides for other corridors and adjusted his weave as needed. The idea was to smash the remaining creatures against the wall in front of them And pray there were no more in those adjoining corridors.
Ivan was only peripherally aware of Nox. He was definitely getting tired. Then again, this was his first proper outing, so he wasn't gonna beat himself up about it. Nox seemed to have a handle on things and Ivan felt confident that it would end soon.
And then after a few more minutes he began to wonder. Those things just kept on coming and while they were slowed down trying to slog their way through the small opening and wall of bodies that blocked them, they never actually stopped.
Would they stop? Had they hit a main artery of creatures? The image of these things flooding through the tunnels and out into the streets- into homes and offices and stores and parks, claws and jaws and teeth slathering and slashing and biting- flashed through his mind and he felt a renewed sense of determination. Whatever fatigue he had been feeling was momentarily brushed away and he fought on. It was will as much as anything else, those final moments in a fight where you and the other guy had slogged at each other and were both exhausted but you still found somewhere deep to dig into and force yourself to move. He could not let these things out into his city.
He was already in the middle of the biggest fire disc yet, imagining that the explosion would hopefully take out the rest of them. In the back of his mind he noticed the walls and ceiling and wondered if his explosion would bring the entire structure down on them.
Grimly, he smiled. They would not get out of here. He continued to compress the weave when Nox's voice pierced his concentration. It took a moment to understand and then he saw what he was doing. His smile became a grin and he let his weave dissipate as he pulled as much of the power into him as possible- and it was less than before, that's how tired he was- and bolstered Nox's wall of air with his own, pushing with all his strength.
The wall of air scoured the sides and ceiling of the tunnel, compacting the creatures back, leaving bloody scrapes along the surfaces. He pushed with Nox as hard as he could, pushed the creatures back until soon it was just a mass of bloody lumps of hairy meat and bones behind the wall. And still they pushed.
How would they know if they got all of them?
The wall finally crashed into a wall. If Nox had a weak stomach this might have bothered him. There had been only been one bend in their current tunnel and it was now blocked with walls of air. Thankfully only a few creatures pounded on the other side and when Nox dropped the walls they were easily dispatched. Two on the left and three on the right.
Between the last fireballs and Ivan's disks they fell quickly. Nox looked at the mess around them and he wanted to collapse on the ground but the sticky red streaks that were black in the dim light of his floating orb made him think twice.
Nox grinned at Ivan. "That was fun. But I need a beer now. How you doin?"
Actually he probably need sleep not alcohol, but beer sounded better. He chuckled to himself remeber what Bas had wanted after a glorious fight just like that. It made Nox sad to think he'd never see his friend again. But at least there were a few things that would keep the man's memory alive - sex after a fight was one thing. Too bad Nox didn't have a girl to go home to. Not that he would looking like he did. He was sure he was covered in blood and gore to rival the best horror show.