Domain Game Quest

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Control, Control, Control.

You feel your element moving around you as you swing your yo-yo through the air, feel the force building up. Pressure. Power. Speed. You don't stop running, you leap up the last few flights to them and and bring it crashing down.

Typhoon Axe. That's what you'll call it, in your head. The stairs splinter and fall from the blow, taking with it the three trumpeters. You look down, and are satisfied to see them explode against the floor, shattering like pottery in their death and leaving nothing behind. Then Armand steps out of the aether beside you, huffing for breath. "So, now what?"

The hole looks to wide to jump normally. Far to much. Looks like you overdid it. "We can't get caught here." he says, and you think about being stuck between two trumpeters. You grab his arm.

"Jump. I'll handle the rest."

He gives you that look of absolute trust that you hate, then takes a flying leap. You gather up the air and send if flying into his back, propelling him the rest of the way. He land safely. Your turn. You take as much as a running leap as you can, then try to wind yourself the rest of the way. But it isn't enough. You can't concentrate as well in mid air. Your fingers barley scrape the edge of the shattered stairs before you start to fall.

In that second long eternity you think of the trumpeter, not even leaving a body behind to bury. All you would leave is an orb. Someone would be rewarded for your death and in this moment you hate them whoever it is. Then you feel Armand hands wrap around yours, and your fall is stopped. You look up to him and see him pulling.

Unfortunately, you also look back at the other end of the staircase. It's the two from before, closing fast.

>COMMAND?

[Philote]

>Get up and move, don't waste time with the Creeps below

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Pull me up!" You shout.

"What do you think I'm trying to do." He shouts back.

Oh, yeah, that's good for your self-esteem.

He struggles and manages to pull you up onto the edge right as the pair get to the end of their stairwell. They fire off again in frustration, shots going wide do to the angle. you keep headed up.

You come to a another pair of the creatures standing above you, horn trained. That's when you see another one coming down. Express. It's only visible for an instant before falls out of sight and you hear it shatter on the ground. What in the world?

No time for that though. You can see three more of those things coming around the corner to back those two up. The closer pair are already in range, and charging.

>COMMAND?

[Philote]

>Send Armand forward, as much as I'd like for them to stay together, he can not help if we hold him back
>Use wind to pull the creeps toward you, hopefully throwing them off balance or off the edge.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Go on up."

"What?"

"You heard me. You're an infiltrator: infiltrate. They'll all be focusing on me, you go get the chest."

"Cassandra will see you."

"So, I'll be taking the same risk as the others. Good to know."

"You can't just-"

"ARMAND, GET OUR TEAMMATE OUT OF HERE!!!"

He looks at you, then nods. He darts forward, vanishing by the third step. He'll never let you live that little outburst down.

You dodge to the left as the two trumpeters open fire, narrowly avoiding the blasts. You can't attack yet. You have to give him time to get clear. Another two bursts come, and you dodge back the the right. The other three come and joining their brethren, leaving you facing a firing squad of five trumpeters. As they all charge up, you reach out and grab the air around them. You try to imagine a river, a fast river. One strong enough to take everything away.

It's as if a storm is localized in that area. The air speeds up, picking up more and more power. You give one final push just as they fire, the blasts flying everywhere off course as the lot are thrown over the side. You smile to yourself. Then see a sixth one go tumbling into your view on it's way to join the others. You go to the side and take a look up the stairway.

Just what the hell was going on up there?

>COMMAND?

[Philote]

>Prepare for next wave of Creeps. Is it possible to build up a pressurized ball of air to unleash once the next Creeps show up?
>Armand needs to back stab as many as he can without revealing himself on his way up

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

You move up a little, if only to keep yourself away from the edge. This was good for you: advance slowly, like a tank. You swing the yo-yo over your head, catching the air up in it. Here they came: 4 this time. By the looks of it, Armand had been to work on his way past; they all had a gash of some kind.

You're lucky they're so dumb.

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Armand Irving moves up the stairs, nimble dodging between the trumpeters as they come down. It's interesting, the way he does stealth. Sneaking is usually conducted slowly, with care and precision to avoid being caught. Most of the time, there was a lot of standing still, waiting for just the opportune moment to move. Unfortunately, that wasn't a luxury he had. He could only remain unseen while moving. So he moved, danced nimbly between his enemies, all the while searching for the path that would lead him to where he needed to be. There was no careful planning in these moments. That was for before he was moving. Once on the run, decisions had to be made in seconds. "How do I avoid this?" "How do I get around that?" "Is this enemy worth attacking, or do I keep running?" How fast does his mind work, one could wonder, that he can asses and react the way he did? Surely no mind could, least of all  that of a teenager like him.

And yet Armand flowed like a river up the staircase. Around a creep, leaving a mystery slice in it's back. Under another, which found itself rolling down the stair, sans foot. Faced with an impassible wall of five, he leapt onto the banister. All the while, continuing up. Never stopping.

During one of the long nights, when it had been no one but him and Amanda, he'd called it "Kinetic Stealth." He had great pride in being it's only practitioner.

Someone was coming down. Not a thing, a one. A person. A red. It didn't matter. If she was on her way to Amanda....

Humans, he'd often though, were a whole lot less durable than creeps. For example, if he cut one of these monsters throats, it wouldn't really react. They didn't have vital points. Human beings, other players, all did. This one he would end as he passed. Then, he saw something that made him hesitate.

The red caught up to a trumpeter, pulled up along side of it, then leapt into the air and kicked it. He slammed into the banister, breaking it and tumbling over the side. A team couldn't hurt it's own creeps, but a long fall certainly would. He gripped the blade tighter as they closed, her completely unaware. She could, of course, be one of those crazy ones. The fight junkies, the ones that lived in their own little world where they were the protagonists of some kids comic. He raised the knife up, reversed his grip on it. She got close, Armand got a good look at her. He made a split second decision.

He actually stopped, just for a moment, hardly moment, to watch her go. To wonder why a Red running to battle would have eyes like that. But then he was flowing again, further and further upwards.

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The maelstrom only blows two of them off. The other two slammed into the wall and collapse in a heap. You hear two satisfying shattering sounds.

Followed by a third?

You don't have time to ponder that mystery as the two remain crawl to their feet. Another is just founding the corner.

>COMMAND?

[Philote]

>Use wind to spin around the Creeps so that they fire at the ones coming behind them.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Oh, you just had a wicked idea.

The two struggle up, theirs cheeks puffing out over and over again. They look enraged! You cross your arms a grip the air around them. They start to blow, and as they do you pull. A very sudden wind storm kicks up, spinning them about face just as the other makes it's way down.

The poor straggler takes two right in the face and is sent flying back up the stairs. Then, to add insult to injury, he gets run over the another of it's kind behind that's tumbling down the stairs. It smalls, out of control, into the two you had just flipped around, sending them to the floor for a second time.

It's like the There Stooge. You almost feel bad as you watch them try to untangle from one another.

>COMMAND?

[Philote]

That seemed to work well so let's try this:
>Pick one up with air and hold it in front of us so that we can cause it to shoot where we want.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

(I can't believe I've been forgetting to do this. 1d20+5=9)

Emboldened by how well the flip around plan worked, you decide to experiment a little. Push your limits. You grab the air around one of them and begin to circle it. Soon you have a nice little tornado going, which you use to lift the prone creep into the air. It struggles and kicks, constantly forcing you to adjust speed. Even worse, it just refuses to get in position. Wait, would it even fi-

As you ponder this, a blast hit you in the chest. You hack and sputter, thrown back by the force of the blow and begin to roll. It's not nearly as funny when it happens to you, THIS HURTS! You reach out, steady yourself, and sorely pull yourself up. The quartet are up now. Luckily, you have some distance between them and you.

>COMMAND?

(I would have given that to you on a 15)

[Philote]

(Alright, that is fine with me, though I say we try it again if we can find a solo one )
>Time to do a Wind Assisted Jump over them instead of letting so many gather against us.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Oh, screw this." You mutter.

You sprint up the stairs. You were done with this waiting crap. Your assaulted with a barrage of sound, which blows chunks out of the steps as you dodge and weave around it. You get close enough. Juust close enough.

You leap, and can already tell you don't have enough vertical distance. Doesn't matter though. You twist your body in midair and fire a jetstream behind you. You shoot off like balloon come undone, shooting over the heads of the baffled creeps as you land a bit to clumsily on the other side of them. You give them a little salute, before running along.

Right into a wall of incoming fire. You barley have time to see them before a you're laid out again. You feel it everywhere at once. Your head is blown back, the breath knocked right out of your lungs. You tumble back down, coming to a rest face down on the stairwell. You timidly lift your aching head to see what hit you.

Five. Five of them. An impassible wall of five. You hear footsteps behind you. The four from before, advancing.

You're surround.

>COMMAND?

[Philote]

(Maybe I should let Wulf make the plan )
>Perhaps we can break the floor below us and monkey bar our way around the underside of the stairs or at least drop to a lower section so that we are not surround.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

(You would have to charge that up. I think I've been pretty consistent with her power so far, though feel free to point out where I botched that; When she's moving air around, she can do it instantly. But if she wants to cut or deliver a heavy blow, like when she killed Simon or smashed the stairs, she has to build up enough air pressure to do that.)

[Philote]

(Instead of smashing through the stairs we could just flip over the edge of the stairs and go with the same plan)

[Celadon's Penultimate]

( Maybe later today?)

[Philote]

Alternate Plan:
>Slightly push the sound waves so that they slide past you and the two groups hit each other.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

This was going to be close. So close.

The trumpeters fired, and she grabbed the air and twisted. It took pitch perfect timing, but the shots sprayed outward in a circle. Two behind were hit. As were three in front. The rest drilled holes in the stairwell and punched deep into the walls. The ones still up immediately begin to suck up again. But before they get another shot off...

The one in the middle falls over, rolling toward you. You move as it goes past. You look up expecting to see Armand. Instead, it's some sort of red blur. RED BLUR!

You duck to the side in time to dodge the reds punch. Short brown hair, with a weird look in her eye. Wearing a a red track suit. She turns to you and raises her fist. The first jab it so fast you can hardly see it, landing just inches from your nose. You leap back instinctual, though you know you're far to slow to dodge another one of those.

But then she talks, her voice empathetic. "There are more of these things coming, far to many for you to handle alone. So fight me. As long as your fighting me, they won't attack. Get it?" She indicates up the stairs with her eyes, then circles around behind you.

You're about to ask what the hell shes up to when she charges.

Nadine: Genius of Skill

COMMAND?

[Philote]

>Spar with her but try to collect energy/wind for an emergency if one arises
>While sparring, try to bring the fight up the stairs so that we can get to Armand