high_seas | The Great Ghost Race: Start??

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The Great Ghost Race: Start??

[The morning of the race is cloudy and oppressive with a muggy heat, but there’s a general cheer and anticipatory air, though everyone seems to be looking over their shoulders for someone or something. In any case, whether you are spectating or participating, the race starts off much as it did last year.

Except the announcer this year sounds a little more apprehensive? Perhaps it has something to do with the Naval Ships threaded among the participants, or some number of the crews looking dead-eyed, wearing faintly pulsing shards and staring upward at the peak of the rushing water.

This is the 111th Annual Great Ghost Race! Now, participants!]

GET YE GONE!

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[hed hear a bit of a growl and the sound of rubble being shoved aside]

Yeah! I'm okay!

[hes actually a little surprised te guy came to check on him. That was nice of him]

[he jumped out of the hole his body had made in the wooden wall of the house, just looking a little scraped up. He was met with the sight of not only Gan Ning, but two of the heads coming for them]

Crap, look out! [nine too gently, he shoved his partner over and flattened himself milliseconds before the two heads swept over the top of them with a chomp. He rolled over on his back and swung his sword at the underside of one neck, making a deep enough cut for the monster to hiss and pull its heads back]

This thing is relentless...

[he takes the shove hard and does a backward somersault, end over end, but it works to get him out of the way. The head nearest him slams into another building, showering him with bricks. Ning's response is to curse savagely in Chinese, some rather untranslatable swear words at that, partly out of surprise and partly at the jolt of pain to his injured arm.

He picks himself up and stays low to the ground, hustling back over to Thash.]

All right, new plan. We gotta find its weakness. Soft belly, weakness to fire, something - anything! I don't think we'll get the heads, we gotta go for the kill.

Agreed....

[Thash took the couple of seconds the things used to recoil and looked over it. Since it didn't look like a normal earthly creature, he wondered if it actually had any weaknesses...but if it did, he'd guess...]

I wonder if attacking the eyes would be an easier way of putting heads out of commission? As for the body, I still think explosives are the best way to attack something that size but...I do have a dagger enchanted with ice. That might help...

Maybe. Look. [he points to where Hiccup and Toothless have joined the fray, flying around the heads and distracting at least some of them. He knows Gaius is around here somewhere, too]

We got backup, so we're not alone. It's gonna take all of us doin' whatever we can. So try everything - weapons, all of it. If it don't work, try somethin' else. [he glances down at his bleeding arm] I dunno what I got left in me, might have to pick one weapon and stick with it.

Yeah...I'm gonna try this, then. [he took out a silver dagger with blue gems in it] I haven't actually tried it in a serious battle before, and I ain't too good with magic but...last time I stuck it in something, it froze it solid. Maybe I can at least freeze a foot or something.

I'll be right behind ya. If you freeze it, I'll cut it off. We'll take this bastard down chunk by chunk if we have to!

[He takes a moment to wrap the chain of Dark Thresher securely around his forearm, so that he can still use it as a blade if not a projectile. He won't lose it if his arm becomes too weak to hold it, now. Gan Ning is now sharp and pointy on both ends, all the better to do the hacking.]

Let's roll!

Alright!

[he darted out from behind their cover and ran towards the monster. Fortunately, the heads that had been focused on them were currently being distracted by the other attackers so they were able to get close unhindered.]

[he wasn't expecting what he saw when he got close, though. It must have a body of claws somewhere, but it looked almost like its heads extended all the way to the ground with nothing else there except some smaller tentacles. And this close it looked even less like a physical thing and more like some beast of shadow with veins of red light running through its skin. Well....hopefully that meant magic would be more effective against it than the purely physical attacks they'd been trying]

Here goes nothin'....[it still hadn't noticed them with any of it's heads yet so Thash ran right up to one of the tentacles and stabbed the dagger into it. Simultaneously, the ice began to spread and two tentacles on either side of him curled towards him threateningly]

[it would take a while for Gan Ning to rebuild the energy for another speed charge, so he worked on just keeping up, following Thash and closing in as soon as he saw the dagger hit its mark. Nice! He takes a moment to slash at the tentacles, cleaving one cleanly and just sort of flailing his left arm with the sickle at the other one to beat it off. Enough ice has spread by now that he can find his target easily, and whips around to plunge River Master into the frozen....whatever it is. Flesh? Energy? Spirit? What is this thing made of?! But some part of it is frozen, and that part should be numbed and immobile, perfect to stab and slice off.

One of the heads thrashes wildly in the air at the stab, and then dives down at them again. The teeth miss but the nose hits Gan Ning square in the weak shoulder, driving him flat onto the ground where he stands.]

[Thash too was impressed by the depth and speed at which the ice spread...until he realized the dagger was draining energy from him to do its work. All magic had a price, it seemed. As Gan Ning swooped in to hit the frozen tentacle bases and part of a neck base, he pulled out the dagger and jumped back to allow him room. His attack did a good job of shattering the frozen pieces of the beast, sending them crumbling away]

Nice! We actually did some decent damage...! [he paused in his cheering when he realized that meant an attack was coming from the head whose base they'd damaged. Also, out from underneath the damage they'd catch a glimpse of the creature's inner 'body'...more dark miasma with veins of red light running through it, getting thicker as they neared the center as if there were a heart in there somewhere. Unfortunately there was also a clawed arm]

[thash turned towards the head that hit Gan Ning, hitting it with his sword as forcefully as he could. It left a good slash and caused the head to back up and hiss, but then the claw grasped the shark hybrid from behind. He swore as it held him down and another head turned inward towards its intended prey]

[Picking himself up, Gan Ning ignores the ringing in his head and the new cuts and bruises and just launches himself at any head in range, both blades flying. He doesn't even care about finesse or technique or strategy, he just wants to hit and keep hitting. Keep hitting until they give up and back away, keep hitting until Thash is free.

It's only when they both have the briefest moment of breathing room that he even knows where he is.]

DAMN THIS THING!

[and he throws his whole weight behind the River Master, plunging it into the hole they made with the ice trick.]

[his attacks fought the heads back pretty effectively; which was impressive for how big they were. However despite Thash's struggling beneath the claw, it didn't let up until Gan Ning started hacking at that hole. Then the claw released him quickly in favor of swiping at Gan Ning to get him away]

[Thash jumped up of course, now convinced that they were into something with this hole. Maybe if he could get it even bigger, they'd have a chance at striking at this thing's weakness.]

[he already felt like he had less energy and strength from the first time the dagger had drawn power from him, and somewhat battered from being knocked around, but none of that deterred him. He'd wait until there was an opening and go for it with the dagger again, hoping Gan Ning wouldn't get clawed in the process]

[Ning will just keep swinging at anything he can, keeping claws and heads and everything else off them so as to leave Thash room to work. He at least has half a mind to try to spear River Master up into the mouths of the dragony heads, but they're too smart and draw back or snap their jaws shut so he can't.]

Do that thing again, that worked!

Alright, here goes...

[the aw and heads were pretty focused on Gan Ning, so Thash slipped past the claw to the opening they'd already made and stuck the dagger into the middle of it again. He willed the ice to spread quickly, allowing it to drain what it needed from him just as quickly]

[the creature must have felt the effects immediately because it's body gave a sort of jolt and it scrambled to get Thash away, it's claw and tentacles turning back towards him. The heads roared and hissed and the two closer ones snapped at Gan Ning to try to keep him from interfering]

Yeah, yeah, I know, roar at me all ya want, I ain't stoppin' till you go down!

[he must be feeling a bit stronger, if he's trash-talking the hydra. It takes a bit for him to realize that the ice is set up for him again, and when he does, he just whips his whole body around in a circle, letting go of the sickle's handle and letting enough of the chain spool off his arm to just sort of hurl the whole apparatus at the ice. That leaves him his good arm and River Master to keep slashing at the heads snapping at him.]

[Thash had fully intended to help smash the ice himself, but found the drain of the ice dagger had left him feeling very weak. He barely had the strength to pull it free and get out of the way before Gan Ning's weapon came spinning through to shatter the ice.]

[this deepened the hole, or gap they'd made in the monster quite a bit. Many of the veins of light were now exposed, and they could see all the way to where they thickened and converged in a mass of light that could only be the monster's core. But it didn't like that very much]

[the beast flew into a rage, and as many heads and tentacles as it had free turned to attack them. Thash couldn't get out of the way fast enough to avoid the claw slamming into him, sending him flying quite far. In his current state it was unlikely he'd be coming back after that....Good luck Gan Ning!]

[yeeaaaahhh...this time he watches and knows he can't do anything to help the other guy. If he moves, the beast will cut him down where he stands. Thanks Thash, you done good.

He can see that there's something in there, something he should go after, but the problem is going to be getting free of the heads. What he really needs is a distraction, something to get them all off him so they don't see him go for the heart. The last thing he needs is the whole monster rolling over onto him and crushing him inside. But Gan Ning can't break free, it's taking all his strength to beat back the thrashing heads. Dark Thresher dangles at the end of its chain, useless, as he puts both hands on the hilt of River Master and throws everything he's got at the black beast.]

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The Great Ghost Race: Start??

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